(19.)
On the afternoon of the 11th I made an attempt alone to ascend the Riffelhorn, and attained a considerable height; but I attacked it from the wrong side, and the fading light forced me to retreat. I found some agreeable people at the hotel on my return. One clergyman especially, with a clear complexion, good digestion, and bad lungs—of free, hearty, and genial manner—made himself extremely pleasant to us all. He appeared to bubble over with enjoyment, and with him and others on the morning of the 13th I walked to the Görner Grat, as it lay on the way to my work. We had a glorious prospect from the summit: indeed the assemblage of mountains, snow, and ice, here within view is perhaps without a rival in the world.[A] I shouldered my axe, and saying "good-bye" moved away from my companions.
"Are you going?" exclaimed the clergyman. "Give me one grasp of your hand before we part."
This was the signal for a grasp all round; and the hearty human kindness which thus showed itself contributed that day to make my work pleasant to me.
A DIFFICULT DESCENT. 1858.
We proceeded along the ridge of the Rothe Kumme to a point which commanded a fine view of the glacier. The ice had been over these heights in ages past, for, although lichens covered the surfaces of the old rocks, they did not disguise the grooves and scratchings. The surface of the glacier was now about a thousand feet below us, and this it was our desire to attain. To reach it we had to descend a succession of precipices, which in general were weathered and rugged, but here and there, where the rock was durable, were fluted and grooved. Once or twice indeed we had nothing to cling to but the little ridges thus formed. We had to squeeze ourselves through narrow fissures, and often to get round overhanging ledges, where our main trust was in our feet, but where these had only ledges an inch or so in width to rest upon. These cases were to me the most unpleasant of all, for they compelled the arms to take a position which, if the footing gave way, would necessitate a wrench, for which I entertain considerable abhorrence. We came at length to a gorge by which the mountain is rent from top to bottom, and into which we endeavoured to descend. We worked along its rim for a time, but found its smooth faces too deep. We retreated; Lauener struck into another track, and while he tested it I sat down near some grass tufts, which flourished on one of the ledges, and found the temperature to be as follows:—
| Temperature of rock | 42° | C. |
| Of air an inch above the rock | 32 | |
| Of air a foot from rock | 22 | |
| Of grass | 25 |
The first of these numbers does not fairly represent the temperature of the rock, as the thermometer could be in contact with it only at one side at a time. It was differences such as these between grass and stone, producing a mixed atmosphere of different densities, that weakened the sound of the falls of the Orinoco, as observed and explained by Humboldt.
SINGULAR ICE-CAVE. 1858.