THE VALLEY OF ZERMATT

Footnotes

[1.] In the lower diagram the tins are shown as they appear when packed for travelling. I generally carry them at the top of a knapsack, outside. [2.] I extract from No. 63 of the Alpine Journal the following note by Gustav de Veh, a retired Russian officer, upon the prevention of snow-blindness. “We were on the march home along the mountain plains, when, dazzled by the intense sun-rays reflected by the endless snow-fields we were marching along, my eyelids lost all power to open; I felt my elbow touched, and, looking through my fingers, I beheld one of our friendly highlanders preparing a kind of black paste by mixing gunpowder with snow. The General told me to let him do what he wanted. The Circassian applied the black stuff under my eyes, on my cheeks, and to the sides of my nose. To my astonishment I could then open my eyes, and felt no more difficulty to see plainly and clearly everything. I have tried that experiment many times since, and it never failed to relieve me, although I used common Indian-ink and black water-colour, instead of the above-mentioned paste.” [3.] I understand that scarcely any nails wore found in the boots of Dr. Moseley, who lost his life recently on the Matterhorn, and this fact sufficiently accounts for the accident. [4.] The author of Travels in Alaska. [5.] The Riffel hotel (the starting-point for the ascent of Monte Rosa), a deservedly popular inn, leased to Monsieur Seiler, the hotel proprietor of Zermatt, is placed at a height of 3100 feet above that village (8400 above the sea), and commands a superb panoramic view. The house has continually grown, and it can now accommodate a large number of persons. In 1879, it was connected by telegraph with the rest of Switzerland. [6.] The highest of the Mischabelhörner. [7.] The temperature at the St. Bernard in the winter is frequently 40° Fahr. below freezing-point. January is their coldest month. See Dollfus-Ausset’s Matériaux pour l’étude des Glaciers, vols. vi. and vii. [8.] There was not a pass between Prerayen and Breil. See [note to p. 105]. [9.] This pass is called usually the Va Cornère. It is also known as the Gra Cornère; which is, I believe, patois for Grand Cornier. It is mentioned in the first volume of the second series of Peaks, Passes, and Glaciers, and in Chapters [V.] and [XVIII.] of this volume. [10.] I had been sent to the Val Louise to illustrate this ascent. [11.] Since that time a decent house has been built on the summit of this pass. The old vaulted hospice was erected for the benefit of the pilgrims who formerly crossed the pass en route for Rome.—Joanne’s Itinéraire du Dauphiné. [12.] See the [Map in Chap. VIII]. [13.] The depth of the valleys is so great that the sun not only is not seen for more than a few hours per day during the greatest portion of the year, but in some places—at Villard d’Arène and at Andrieux for example—it is not seen at all for one hundred days.—Lodoucette’s Hautes-Alpes, p. 599. [14.] Sometimes called the Aiguille du Midi de la Grave, or the Aiguille de la Medje. [15.] The maps of the Dauphiné Alps to Ball’s Guide to the Western Alps, and to Joanne’s Itinéraire du Dauphiné, must be excepted. These maps are, however, on too small a scale for travelling purposes. [16.]

“Faits pour servir à l’Histoire des Montagnes de l’Oisans,” by Elie de Beaumont, in the Annales des Mines.