[CHAPTER XXXVI]
Sunday Church Bells—A Cause of Profanity—A Magnificent Glacier—Fault Finding by Harris—Almost an Accident—Selfishness of Harris—Approaching Zermatt—The Matterhorn—Zermatt—Home of Mountain Climbers—Fitted out for Climbing—A Fearful Adventure —Never Satisfied
[CHAPTER XXXVII]
A Calm Decision—"I Will Ascend the Riffelberg"—Preparations for the Trip—All Zermatt on the Alert—Schedule of Persons and Things—An Unprecedented Display—A General Turn—out—Ready for a Start—The Post of Danger—The Advance Directed—Grand Display of Umbrellas—The First Camp—Almost a Panic—Supposed to be Lost—The First Accident—A Chaplain Disabled—An Experimenting Mule—Good Effects of a Blunder—Badly Lost—A Reconnoiter—Mystery and Doubt—Stern Measures Taken—A Black Ram—Saved by a Miracle—The Guide's Guide
[CHAPTER XXXVIII]
Our Expedition Continued—Experiments with the Barometer—Boiling Thermometer—Barometer Soup—An Interesting Scientific Discovery—Crippling a Latinist—A Chaplain Injured—Short of Barkeepers—Digging a Mountain Cellar—A Young American Specimen—Somebody's Grandson—Arrival at Riffelberg Botel—Ascent of Gorner Grat—Faith in Thermometers—The Matterhorn
[CHAPTER XXXIX]
Guide Books—Plans for the Return of the Expedition—A Glacier Train—Parachute Descent from Gorner Grat—Proposed Honors to Harris Declined—All had an Excuse—A Magnificent Idea Abandoned—Descent to the Glacier—A Supposed Leak—A Slow Train—The Glacier Abandoned—Journey to Zermatt—A Scientific Question
[CHAPTER XL]
Glaciers—Glacier Perils—Moraines—Terminal Moraines—Lateral Moraines—Immense Size of Glacier—Traveling Glacier——General Movements of Glaciers—Ascent of Mont Blacc—Loss of Guides—Finding of Remains—Meeting of Old Friends—The Dead and Living—Proposed Museum—The Relics at Chamonix
[CHAPTER XLI]
The Matterhorn Catastrophe of 1563—Mr Whymper's Narrative—Ascent of the Matterhorn—The Summit—The Matterhorn Conquered—The Descent Commenced—A Fearful Disaster—Death of Lord Douglas and Two Others—The Graves of the Two
[CHAPTER XLII ]
Switzerland—Graveyard at Zermatt—Balloting for Marriage—Farmers as Heroes—Falling off a Farm—From St Nicholas to Visp—Dangerous Traveling—Children's Play—The Parson's Children—A Landlord's Daughter—A Rare Combination—Ch iIIon—Lost Sympathy—Mont Blanc and its Neighbors—Beauty of Soap Bubbles—A Wild Drive—The King of Drivers—Benefit of getting Drunk
CHAPTER XXXVI
[The Fiendish Fun of Alp-climbing]
We did not oversleep at St. Nicholas. The church-bell began to ring at four-thirty in the morning, and from the length of time it continued to ring I judged that it takes the Swiss sinner a good while to get the invitation through his head. Most church-bells in the world are of poor quality, and have a harsh and rasping sound which upsets the temper and produces much sin, but the St. Nicholas bell is a good deal the worst one that has been contrived yet, and is peculiarly maddening in its operation. Still, it may have its right and its excuse to exist, for the community is poor and not every citizen can afford a clock, perhaps; but there cannot be any excuse for our church-bells at home, for there is no family in America without a clock, and consequently there is no fair pretext for the usual Sunday medley of dreadful sounds that issues from our steeples. There is much more profanity in America on Sunday than in all in the other six days of the week put together, and it is of a more bitter and malignant character than the week-day profanity, too. It is produced by the cracked-pot clangor of the cheap church-bells.
We build our churches almost without regard to cost; we rear an edifice which is an adornment to the town, and we gild it, and fresco it, and mortgage it, and do everything we can think of to perfect it, and then spoil it all by putting a bell on it which afflicts everybody who hears it, giving some the headache, others St. Vitus's dance, and the rest the blind staggers.