RIVAL GUIDES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 206, 6 August 1862, Page 6

RIVAL GUIDES.

(From Pcahs, Pauses, and Glaciers. Edited by Ed. ■ward Shirley Kennedy, M.A., F.1i.0.5.) An additional result of our expedition had been to develope a decided rivalry between Laueuer and the Chainounix men. We had already one or two little races and disputations in consequence, and Lauemr, if he cou!d have spoken English, would have said that the Savoyards were "muffs." As, however, he could not speak a word of French, nor they of German, he was obliged to convey this sentiment in pantomime, which perhaps did not soften its vigour. i was accordingly prepared for a few disputes the next day,--an annoyance which generally attends a combination of Swiss and Chamounix guides. About four ou the morning.of the 7th August we got off from the inn on the Wcngen Alp. notwithstanding a few delays, and fteered .straight for the foot of the Ei^er. In the early morning the rocks around the glacier and the lateral moraines Avere hard and slippery. Before long, hoAVevev, Aye found ourselves well on the ice, near the central axis of the Eiger glacier, and looking up at the great terrace-shaped ice masses, separated by deep crevasses, which rose threateningly over our head-*, one above another, like the 'defences of some vast fortification. Aud here began the first little; dispute between Oberhtndnud Chainounix. The Chamounix men proposed a direct assault on the network of] ereA'asses above us. Laucner said that we ought to turn them by crossing to the southwett side, iumie-diat--ly below the Munch. My friends and their guides foriinng a majority, and seeming to have little respect for the arguments urged by the minority, we gave in and followed them, with many muttered remarks from Lauencr. We soou found ourselves performing a series of manoeuvres like tho.-c required for tlie ascent of tlie Co! dti tleant. At times we were hhig flat iv the liule gutters on the iiiccs of the semes, worming ourselves along {like bo-i-con^trietors. At the r.uxt moment we Were balancing ourselves on a knife-edge of ice between two crevasses i,r plunging into the very bnvcls of the glacier, villi a natural arch of ice meeting above our heads. i need not attempt to describe difficulties and dangers familial to all ice-traveik-r-.1-ike other such diihcultie.-,'iieywere ".eiy good fun whibt they lasted, but unfoi Innately they Reined inclined to la.-t rather too long. Some of the deep oreias'-es apparently stretched almo.-.t irom side to side of the gl »der, rending its whole mass into di.s:oited fragments. In attempting to find a way through them, we seemed to he going i-c.-irly as far backwards as firw n's, the labyrinth ie wiii-.di v.c wi-ie involved being appun utly as hopeies.- iy intricate as it had be..n at fii. t. Moreover, the sun hud long tone c.l ihe big! cr snow tieles, and was creeping dow.i to us :=t"p ly >.tep. _ As soon as it reached the huge masses amongst which we were p: Tiifully toiling, some of ihem would begin to jump about iike had.tones in a .-de wer. and our positie'i would become iMilly dangeiviis The Chanr»uiii\ guidex, in fact, declared it to he dangerous already, anu warned us not to speak, for fear of bringing ■-onie of rhe nicely poised i«-e nurses down on our heads. Ou my translating this wvll mtaut piece of ad*, i-e to L;*u ■- ncr; he immediately selected the most dangerous looking pinnacle in sight, and, mounting to the top of it, s. Nt foith a series of fcivauis, I ;<.id enough, I sh add have thought, to bring down the top of the Monch. They failed, however, to di.-Jolge any :-e---raes, and Lnuener, going to the front, celled to in to f Uoav him. By this time we were idl g! ul to follow anyone who was confident enough to leati. Turidir,|to our right, we crossed the glacier in a direction parallel to the deep crevasses, and therefore uuol>structed by a::y serious obstacles, till we found ourselves immediately beneath the great cliffs of the | Moneh. Our prospect* changed at once. A great fold in tlie glacier produces a kind of diagonal pathway, sire ching upwards from the point where we stool 'owards the rocks of the Eiger; —not 1 that it was exactly a carriage-road —hut. aloiijr the line wliich divides two different system-, of ercvu.-.-e, the* glacier seemed to have been crushed into smaller fragments, producing, &* it were, a kind of incipient maeadamisatioH. The masses, instead of lieingdivi U-il by long regular trenches, were crumbled and jammed together co as to form a road, easy and pleasant enough by comparison with our former diiiiailtif-s. Pre.-.sing rapidly up this rough path, we soon found ourselves in the very heart ofthe glacier, with a biykon wilderness of ice on every side. We wero in one of the grandest positions I have ever seen f<>r observing the wonders of the ice-Avorld ; bet those wonders were not all of an encouraging nature. For, looking up to the snow-fields now clo.->e abovo us, an obstacle appeared Avhich made us thii.k that all our previous labour had been in vain. From side to .-ide ot the glacier a va.st chevattx de /rise of blue hv-piuiiueles struck tin through tha white layers of neve formed by the first plunge ofthe glacier down its waterfall of ire. Some of them rose iv fantastic, shapes,—Luge blocks balanced on narrow footstalks, and only wai'ii.g for the first touch of the sun to fall in ruiiiH down tiie slope below. Others rohe like church spi.iesi or like square towers, defended by trcm-hos of unfathomable depth. Once beyond this barrier," we should be safe upon the high' st plateau on the glacier at the foot ofthe last snow slop*. Hut it was obviously necessary to-turn them ; it would be impossible to force a passage through them. One plan Avas to climb the lower rocks of the Eiger ; but after a moment's hesitation, we fortunately followed Lnuener towards the other side ofthe glacier, where a small trap, between the seines and the lower slop; s of the Moncli, Feemed to be the entrance to a ravine that might lead us upwards. Such it turned out to be. Instead o» (Jx- rough footing to which we had hitherto ben unwillingly restricted, we found ourselves Hscendi' v" a na row gorge, with the giant c'ill'-. ofthe Monch on our right, and the toppiing ice-pin-nacles on our left A beautifully even surface of .■now, sciiicely marked by a single crovu-se, lay born at hour feet. We passed rapidly up this :;{;mge little pafhwav, as it. wound steeply upwards between the rocks and the ice, expecting every moment to see it thin our, or break off at some imputable erevn-H*. It was, I presume, formed by the sliding of avalanches f:om the slopes of the Moncli. At any rate, to our delight, it led u« gradually round the 'harrier of the seine:., till in a few minutes wo found ourselv. s on the highest plateau of the glacier, the crevasses fairly beaten. -r-i it -r irir Tn"nim_i linmririiiinii i»«i_mi iiinimi in —n im