The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1865-04-13
Thursday Morning, April 1S, 1866.
An Adventure in the Alps.
PROFESSOR TYNDALL DESCENDING A GLA-
CIER d

PROFESSOR TYNDALL DESCENDING A GLA-
CIER. 80 9.fl
Professor Tyndall sends to the London
Times narrative of rather exciting adven-
ture in the Alps. On the Sd of July he and
two friends, with a couple of guides, Jenni
and Walter, ascended the Piz Morteratsch.
The ascent was accomplished safely, but moi
the descent, which was made along the Nor
teratsch glacier. ~ -tsi1a sels4s @
I'VE at length reached the point at which it
was necessary to quit our mornings track,
and immediately aiterward got upon some
steep rocks, which were rendered slippery
here and there, by the water which trickled
over them. To our right was broad cou-
loir, which was once filed with snow, but This
had been melted and refrozen, so as to expose
a sloping wall of ice. We were all lied to-
gether at this time in the following order; ;
Jenni led, l came next, then my friend H., an
intrepid mountaineer, then my friend L., and
last of all, the guide Walter. After descend
ing the rocks for a time, Jenni turned and ask
ed me whether Thought it better to adhere
to them or to try the ice slope TO our right. l
pronounced in favor of the rocks, but he
seemed to misunderstood me, and turned to-
wards the couloir. He cut steps, reached the
snow, and descended carefully along it, all
following him apparently in good order.
After little time he stopped, turned, and
looked upwards at the the last three men. He
said something about keeping carefully in the
tracks, adding that a false step might detach
an avalanche. The word was scarcely utter
ed when | heard the sound of a fall behind
me, then rush, and In the tWinkling of an
eye my two friends and their guide, all appar-
emily. .entangled together, whirled past me. /
suddenly planted myself TO resist their shock,
but in an instant was in their wake, for their
impetus was Irresistible. A moment after
wards Jenni was whirled away, and thus all
fve of US found ourselves riding downwards
with uncontrollable speed on the back of an
avalanche, which single slip had originated
When thrown down by the jerk of the rope
turned promptly on my face and drove my
baton through the moving snow, seeking to
anchor 1t in the ice underneath. Il had hald it
firmly thus for few seconds, when / came in
TO collision with some obstacle, and was rude
1y tossed through the air, Jenli at the same
time bsing shot down upon me. Both of u
here lost our batons. We had, in fact, been
carried over crevasse, had hit its lower
edge, our great velocity causing US to be pitch
ed beyond it. eHell sI-
l was quite bewildered for q moment, but
Immediately righted myself, and could see
those in front of me half buried in the snow,
and jolted from side to side by the ruts among
which they were passing. Suddenly | saw
them tumbled over by an avalanche, aud i'm
mediately afterwards found myself initiating
their motion, This was caused by a second
crevasse. Jenni knew of its existence, and
plunged right into it-a brave and msnlul act,
but Tor the time unavailing. He is over thir-
ty stone in weight, and he thought that by
jumping into the chasm a strain might be put
upon the rope sufficient to check the motion.
He was, however, violently jerked out OF the
hssure, aud almost squeezed to death by the
pressure OF the rope. A long slope was be-
low us, which led directly downwards to
brow where the glacier suddenly'fell in a de.
clivity of ice. At the base of this declivity
the glacier was cut by series of profound
chasms, and towards these we were now rap
idly borne. The three foremost men rode up
on the forehead of the avalanche, and were,
at times, almost wholly immersed in the snow.
But the moving layer was thinner behind, aud
Jenni rose necessarily and with desperate en-
ergy, drove his feet into the firmer substance
underneath. His voice shouting, "Halt! Herr
Jesus, halt p was the only one heard during
the descent. -es - Dol -
A kind of condensed memory, such as that
described by people who have narrowly es-
capped drowning, took possession of me; and
thought and reasoned with preternatural
clearness as / rushed along.s Our start, more
over, was too sudden, and the excitement too
great to permit the developement of terror.
The slope at one place became less steep, the
speed visibly slackened and we thought we
were coming to rest; the avalanche, however,
crossed the brow which terminated this gen.
tier slope, and regained its motion. Here ii.
threw bis arms around his friend, all hope for
the time being extinguished, while l grasped
my belt and struggled for an instant to de-
tach myself. Finding this difficult resumed
the pull upon the rope. My share in the work
was, 1 fear. infnitesimal; but Jenni's power
full strain made itself felt at last. Aided pro-
baby by a slight change of inclination, he
brought the whole to rest within short dis
tance of The chasms over which, had we pre-
served our speed, few seconds would have
carried us. None of us suffered serious dam
age. f. emerged from the snow with his fore
head bleeding, but the wound was superficial
Jenni had bit of flesh removed from his
hand by collision against stone; the pres
sure of the rope had left black welts on my
arms, and we all experienced a tingling sensa
tion over the hands, like that produced by in
cipient frost bite, which continued for severa
days. found portion of my watch chair
hanging round my neck, another portion il
my p0cket-the watch itself was gone"
b On the 10Th of August Professor Tynda
made an expedition in quest of his watch
which was found after perilons search. L
had remained eighteen days in the avalanche
but the application of its key at once restores
it to life, and it has gone with unvarying regu
larity ever since.