The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-10-30 00:00:00

ALPINE CLIMBING.

A large audience assembled on Saturday evening,
when Mr. Leslie Stephen delivered a lecture on
"Among the Alpine Glaciers." Mr. Stephen said
that a hundred years ago nobody seemed to look at
the Alps for themselves, until Rousseau made them
fashionable, and Byron and other English poets fol-
lowed suit. In 1856 Professor Forbes and Mr. Ruskin
wrote certain books about them which so fired the
imagination of some young men that they determined
to get to the top of these mountains. In 1857 they
formed the Alpine Club, and at the end of ten years
they had got to the top of nearly every mountain in
the chain. In 1861 an attempt was made to break
down the monopoly instituted by the guides of Cha-
mounix, and he (the lecturer) undertook the ascent
with guides that he had brought with him from a
distance. His party consisted of five Englishmen and
three guides, and they determined to attempt the
ascent by way of one of the largest glaciers instead of
by the usual route. An accident to one of the party
necessitated their return to the village. Another at-
tempt was made as soon as possible, and this proved
successful. He had ascended Mont Blanc four times
altogether, and on the last occasion witnessal the
sunset from the top of the mountain. The impression
created on him by the spectacle was a lasting one. The
first sign of the setting of the sun was that the moun-
tains began to light up with that extraordinary Alpine
glow which waslike nothing else in the world, and which
seemed to be a sort of mysterious solid fire gleaming
along the whole range of glaciers; and between them
and himself, as the evening mists rose, it seemed as
if there were a great sea of some transparent, ethe-
real, great bluish fluid. Then suddenly he became aware
of a dark triangle that was cut out. of the twilight.
At first he hardly knew how to account for this, but
he soon saw that it was the great shadow of Mont
Blanc itself that was gradually creeping down the
valley, and seemed as though it would go the whole
way to the distant horizon. Presently this shadow,
by *some curious effect, appeared to climb up into the
sky, aud all of a sucklen vanished entirely. As he
stood upon the mountain it did not seem as though
the sun was sinking, but as if be felt the great lurch
of the earth round to the east throwing up the shadow
into the sky. Then all the mountains disappeared,
and the great dark shadow sprang up and began to
envelope the moon, rising pale and ghastly opposite
the sun. The final spectacle was witnessed from a
lower altitude. The immense range of snowy cliffs
was turned livid and ghastly pale to the side against
the sun, and on tke other side was still glowing and
ruddy against the dark night that was coming up,
and far away beyond •the. Lake of. Geneva therelvas,a
great orange band of light brooding over France. In
conclusion, he said that Alpine climbing might be re.
commended to any cautious and sensible person pro..
vided he were not a married man with a family. A
Ileorty vote of thanks was aLeorded to Mr. Stephen.

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