The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-22 00:00:00

Daring Alpine Ascent by a Lady.

A correspondent, writing to the Times, states :
" The Queen of the Bernese Alps,' considered by
the natives of the country one of the most difficult
ascents in Switzerland, has, by the intrepidity of
Mrs. Stephen Wink worth (daughter of Mr. Thomas-
son, of Bolton), been lately proved accessible to
woman as well as to man. Last Thursday, about
12.55 p.m., Mrs. Winkworth, accompanied by her
husband, myself, and three guides, started from the
Hotel de la J ungfrau to sleep at the Faulberg, where
there is a cave with two separate recesses, in some
of the large rocks which over.i ang the great Aletsch
glacier. This trysting place we reached at five
o'clock the same day and left again by candle light
at 1.25 the following morning. We were safely
piloted by Benen over the crevasses and broken ice
which lay in our way for about an hour after start-
ing. The ascent of the Aletsch glacier is very
gradual, and somewhat tedious for a considerable
distance above the Faulberg, but as the snow was
generally in a good state, we were enabled to reach
the top of the steep ice slope leading to the CIJ du
Roththal at about 5.50. Here we breakfasted, and
deposited our imped;rizenta in the form of remain-
ing provisions, &c., upon the snow, in order to
leave our guides as unencumbered as possible
for the latter part of the ascent. At 7.10 we
commenced to climb the last ice slope, which,
although not yet entirely denuded of snow, is
rapidly becoming so, and every week this dry sea-
son continues would render the passage of it more
difficult and dangerous. The step cutting was
excellent. The last ice slope culminates in a short
and very narrow ridge of eoft snow, which until
trampled down had very little more than the breadth
of the human foot. Along this mete Mrs. Wink-
worth walked upright with the assistance of the
guides. The rest of us did the same in turn. The
little black flag was still gallantly holding its own
at the summit. That it could continue to do so
long, however, appearel to us very doubtful. On
comparing our watches, we found our ascent bad
taken us seven hours and a half, including 35
minutes occupied in breakfasting—not bad walking
for a lady. The weather, which about daybreak
had presented a rather threatening aspect, in the
form of large clouds, was now, about nine a.m.,
very flue, although very unfavourable to a distant
view. After looking around for a few minutes
upon vast masses of spotless snow, and black and
barren rock destitute of animal existence, the eye
was glad to drop its regard into the green valleys
of the Oberland, ou the smiling village of Unter-
seen, and the lovely lake of Thun. But the summit
of the Jungfrau is by no means a comfortable rest-
ing place, so after ten minutes spent there we again
roped, and we effected our descent to the bottom of
the slope in about an hour and a quarter. Notwith-
standing the difficulty and danger of this day's
work, Mrs. Winkworth, who, as I understand, had
slightly sprained her knee two days before on the
Aletschorm, demanded hardly more assistance from
the guides than many men, as little accustomed to
ice-work as herself, might have been excused for
doing."

Wreck of the Steamer Georgia.

LIVERPOOL, Friday.

By the arrival of the Cunard steamer Scotia at
Queenstown this morning, we regret to learn the
intelligence of the total loss of the fine new screw
steamer Georgia, Captain Gleaded, on Sable Island,
off the coast of Nova Scotia, on or about the sth inst.
The Georgia cleared from New York on the 30th
ult., and sailed for Liverpool on the following day
with a large cargo, valued at about £130,000. The
cargo consisted of 69 bales of cotton, 2,374 barrels
flour, 44,480 bushels of wheat, 972 gallons of sperm
oil, 522 hhds. of tobacco (valued at about £30,000),
270,000 lb. of bacon, 195,000 lb. of lard, 161 bales
of hair, 426 bags of nuts, 39,059 lb. of cheese ; tal-
low, 26,609 lb. ; butter, 25,735 lb. ; staves, 6,200,
besides a large quantity of clay, foots, rags, &c.
This was only the second return voyage of the
Georgia from New York, as she was launched to-
wards the close of last year from the shipbuilding-
yard of Messrs. J. Reid and Co., of Port-Glasgow.
She was a vessel of a very fine model and large
carrying capacity, of 2,414 tons burden, 300 horse-
power, and barque-rigged. She was owned in
Liverpool by Messrs. Ferule Brothers and Co., and
was intended, on the cessation of hostilities in the
United States, to form one of a new line of nfail
steamers to run between Liverpool and New
Orleans. _ _

The crew are reported safe, but the vessel is stated
to be a complete wreck.
Some of the new mercantile marine insurance
offices will, it is said, be heavy losers by this wreck.

HOUSELESS WANDERERS.—After the arrival of
every boat the streets of Ramsgate just now, says a
lady, are crowded with knots of people who wander about
as though they had been recently rendered homeless by
some dread calamity. This is especially apparent in
Margate. Batches of families have come down from
the east and from the west, from the north, and from
the south of London, having left their habitations in
the great capital under the belief that Providence
would provide for their reception on the sea-coast. They
have been in the habit of doing so in years gong by, even
when the now expanding fatber of those four bouncing girls
and two boys, and his wife, their mother, were young
things, upon whom the cares of wedded life, or the calls
of imperious businees, had not yet dawned ; and they
have left Laburnum Villa or Hollyhock Lodge under the
impression that Margate and Ramsgate were a kind
of carpet-bag that could never be thoroughly filled.
Well, at all events, they have, during this last week,
been wofully undeceived in that respect, and it
has been quite a pitiable sight to see the countenances of
papa and mamma, as they wandered about the streets with-
out a place to put their heads in. They have left their lug-
gage at the station with Sarah Jane, the smirking nurse-
maid, and the two youngest olive branches, just budding
into muslin and frilled trousers; and upon their counten-
ances, as the sun is sinking in the west, there comes an ex-
pression, not of joyous anticipation and exuberant pleasure,
but of dark forebodings and of blank despair. It has already
almost been distressing to see them, except that the disin-
terested spectator finds some relief in the ludicrous side of
the picture, which of course the parties themselves cannot
see. I confess that I have been hardened enough; per-
haps some
people into which
malicious enough to watch and
study the perplexities which the lodging seekers under
these circumstances have been thrown. The look of
something like horror with which Paterfamilias has
rushed out of an establishment with uplifted hands,
after having been informed of the appalling demand
that has just been made for accommodation that he
declares to be barely decent, is really ludicrously painful to
behold ; and then the expression of blank dismay that gra-
dually creeps over the countenances of the good gentleman
and his wife, as the crushing truth gradually manifests
itself, that there are no lodgings to be had, for even those
that have just been alluded to have been snapped up, and
all is desolation in their hearts, not at all relieved by the
frivolity of those chits in muslin and fast hats, and the
two boys, who really seem to be imbued with the impres.
sion that wandering about a strange town without a place
to put their heads in is prime fun.
PHOTOGRAPHY IN HIGH CIRCLES.----The Duchess
of Wellington yesterday honoured Messrs. Watkins,
the eminent photographers, of Parliament-street, with sit-
tings for cartes de twits and other portraits. Among the
distinguished personages who have recently sat to Messrs.
Watkins are the Marquises of Lansdowne and Harlington,
Earls De Grey and Ripon, Dudley and Ward, and Granard ;
Viscounts Hamilton, Ingestre, Powerscourt, Feilding,
and Viscountess Feilding ; Lords Fernley, Radstock,
Hillsborough, and Edward Russell ; the Bishops of
Gloucester and Bristol • the Deans of Exeter, Canterbury,
Windsor, and Bangor ; the Hon. Baron Wilde (new judge
of the Divorce Court) and Lady Mary Wilde ; Sir Augustus
Clifford, Usher of the Black lied; the late Sir Frederick
Slade and the Hon. Lady Slade, and the Ladies Alexandrine
and Agnes Duff.
SURELY DICKENS'S FRENCH CORPORAL in that
last Christmas number of All the Year Round, called
" Somebody's Luggage I"—Several journals relate the fol-
lowing anecdote :—During the siege of Puebla a company
of infantry entered a street which had been set on fire. As
they passed along, the cries of a child were heard to pro.
ceed from one of the houses. Some of them rushed at once
nto the house, and found the poor child, a boy about 18
months old, in a room already full of smoke. On return-
ing to their companions, rather embarrassed with their
finding, a corporal exclaimed—" We cannot leave the poor
innocent to perish here ; I will strap him on my knapsack,
and if I fall during the day come other of you must tak
care of him." The generous corporal and his charge ha(
the good fortune to escape unhurt, and on returning to
camp at night the poor thing, which had fallen asleep on
its hard resting place, was fed and well cared for. The
next morning, after vain efforts to discover his parents, the
company, with the colonel's permission, adopted the child,
and will take charge of him till he can be restored to his
family,—ae/igttani.

SECOND EDITION,