The point was, Did the strata continue with a similar dip throughout the mountain? If they did, then this great eastern face, instead of being hopelessly impracticable, should be quite the reverse.—In fact, it should be a great natural staircase, with steps inclining inwards; and, if it were so, its smooth aspect might be of no account, for the smallest steps, inclined in this fashion, would afford good footing.
They did so, as far as one could judge from a distance. When snow fell in the summer time, it brought out long, terraced lines upon the mountain; rudely parallel to each other; inclined in the direction shown (approximately) upon the figures in the accompanying plate; and the eastern face, on those occasions, was often whitened almost completely over; while the other sides, with the [pg 231]exception of the powdered terraces, remained black—for the snow could not rest upon them.
THE MATTERHORN FROM THE SUMMIT OF THE THEODULE PASS.
THE MATTERHORN FROM THE NORTH-EAST.
THE SPACES BETWEEN THE PARALLEL RED LINES REPRESENT ON AN AVERAGE A VERTICAL HEIGHT OF ABOUT 60 FEET, BUT, ON ACCOUNT OF FORESHORTENING, THE HEIGHT BETWEEN THE UPPERMOST LINES IS SOMEWHAT MORE THAN THIS AMOUNT.
The very outline of the mountain, too, confirmed the conjecture that its structure would assist an ascent on the eastern face, although it opposed one on all other sides. Look at any photograph of the peak from the north-east (or, failing one, the [outline facing page 230], which is carefully traced from one), and you will see that upon the right-hand side (that facing the Z’Muttgletscher) there is an incessant repetition of overhanging cliffs, and of slopes all trending downwards; in short, that the character of the whole of that side is similar to [Fig. 1, p. 229]; and that upon the left hand (or south-east) ridge, the forms, as far as they go, are suggestive of the structure of [Fig. 2]. There is no doubt that the contours of the mountain, seen from this direction, have been largely influenced by the direction of its beds.
It was not, therefore, from a freak, that I invited Mr. Reilly to join in an attack upon the eastern face, but from a gradually-acquired conviction that it would prove to give the easiest path to the summit; and, if we had not been obliged to part, the mountain would, doubtless, have been ascended in 1864.
My guides readily admitted that they had been greatly deceived as to the steepness of the eastern face, when they were halted to look at it in profile, as we came down the Z’Muttgletscher, on our way to Zermatt; but they were far from being satisfied that it would turn out to be easy to climb, and Almer and Biener expressed themselves decidedly averse to making an attempt upon it. I gave way temporarily before their evident reluctance, and we made the ascent of the Théodulhorn to examine an alternative route, which I expected would commend itself to them in preference to the other, as a great part of it led over snow.