Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1871-09-20
PERILS OF ALPINE ADVENTURE.
A Guide Lost or the Jungfrau.
From Tyndall's Hours in the Alps.

A Guide Lost OF. the Jungfrau.
From Tyndall's Hours in the Alps.
From the Rhone glacier we proceeded
down the Rhone valley to Viesch,
snence, in the cool twilight, all three
of us assembled to the Hotel Jungfrau,
on the Eggischorn. This was made
our headquarters for some days, and
here Lubbock and ] decided to ascend
the Jungfrau The proprietor of this
hotel keeps guides for this excursion,
but the charges are so high as to be al
most prohibitory. I, however, needed
no guide in addition to my faithful Ben
nen but simply porter of sufficient
strength and skill to follow where he
led. In the village of Laax, Bennen
found such porter-a young man NAM
ed Blelander, who had the reputation
of being both courageous end strong.
He was the only son Of his mother, and
she was widow.
This young man and a second porter
we sent on with our provisions to the
grotto of the Faulberg, where we were
to spend the night. Between the
Eggischhorn and this cave the glacier
presents difficulty which the most or
dinary caution can overcome, and the
thought of danger in connection with
it never occurred to Us. An hour and
half after the departure of our por-
ters we slowly wended our way to the
lake of Marielin, which we skirted, and
were soon upon the ice, The middle of
the glacier was almost smooth as car
riage road, cut here and there by muis
cal brooks produced by the surplus
ablation. To Lubbock the scene open
ed out with the freshness of a new rev.
elation, as, previously to this year, he
had never been among the glaciers of
the Alps. To me, though not new, the
region had lost no trace of the interest
with which [ first viewed 1t. We moved
briskly along the frozen incline, until,
after g couple of hours march, we saw
solitary human being standing on the
| lateral moraine of the glacier, near the
point where we were to quit it for the
cave of the Faulberg.
At first this man excited no atten-
tion. He stood and watched MS, but
did not come toward Us, until finally
our curiosity was aroused by observing
that he was one of our two men. The
glacier here is always cut by crevasses,
which, while they present no real diff
Guilty, require care. We approached
our porter, but he never moved; and
when he came up to him he looked stu
pid, and did not speak unless spoken
to. Bennen addressed him in the pa
tots of the place, and he answered in
the same patois. His answer must
have been more than usually obscure,
for Bennen misunderstood the most I'M
portant part of it:
"My God - he exclaimed, turning
| to us, "Walters is killed y
Walters was the guide at the Hfggis-
chorn, with whom in the present in
stance we had nothing to do.
"No, not Walters" responded the
man sit is my comrade that is kill
ed"
Bennen looked at him with a wild be-
wildered stare. CHOW killed - he ex-
claimed.
Lost in the crevasse, u was the re,
ply.
We were all SO stunned that fer some
moments we did not quite seize the i'm
port of the terrible statement.
Bennen at length tossed his arms in
the air, exclaiming, "Jesu Maria what
am [ to do 2"
With the swiftness that some ascribe
to dreams, surrounded the fact with
imaginary adluncts, one of which was
that the man had been drawn dead
| from the crevasse, and was now q cor
pse in the cave of the Faulberg for
took for granted that had he still been
entombed, his comrade would have run
or called for our aid. Several times in
succession the porter affirmed that the
missing man was certainly dead.
"How does he know that he is
| dead? =" Lubbock demanded.
GA man is sometimes rendered in
sensible by fall without beng killed. >
"This question was repeated in Ger
man but met with the same dogmatic
response.
"Where is the man." Iasked.
"There," replied the porter, stretch
ing his arm toward the glacier
"In the crevasse?" A stolid "ia -
was the answer. It was with difficulty
that I quelled an imprecatIon.
"Lead the way to the place, you
blockhead, and he led the way.
We were soon beside wide Jagged
cleft, which resembled a kind Of cave
more than an ordinary crevasse. This
cleft had been spanned by a snow bridge
now broken, and to the edge of which
footsteps could be traced. The glacier
at the place was considerably torn, but
simple patience was the only thing
needed to unravel its complcxity-
This quality our porter lacked, and
hoping to make shorter work of it, he
attempted to cross the bridge. 1t gave
way, and he went down, carrying an
immense load of derbris along with him.
| We looked into the hole, at one end Of
which the vision was cut short by dark
ness, while Immediately under the bro
ken bridge it was crammed with snCw
and shattered icicles. We saw nothing
more. We listened with strained atten-
t!on, and from the depths of the gIa-
cler issued low moan. It's repetition
assured us that it was no delusion-the
man was still alive.
Bennen from the first had been ex-
tremely excited; and the fact of his
having, as Catholic, saints and an
/ gels to appeal to, augmented his mo-
tIon. When he heard the moaning he
became almost frantic. He attempted