The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1882-02-01
An Awful Night on the Alps.

Advantage has been taken Of the
bright November days TO make an expe-
dition from Grindelwald, which has
ended very disastrously. s q
Most mountaineers are familiar with
the Bergli hut, one Of the best Of those
little resting places erected to give tenn
porary shelter to persons going to or re-
turning from climb. The huts are sit
uated at the very gate Of the formidable
part of an ascent, and the plan adopted
Is to set out from the regions of civiliza-
ton in the evening. to arrive at the hut
before darkness falls, to snatch certain
amount of sleep, and 10 start at day
break. 1t is necessary TO keep these huts
In repair, in order that there may be no
accidents in the regular season; but, un-
fortunately. the repair Of the Bergli hut
during the last few days has not been
unattended with disaster of fatal and
somewhat novel kind.
Tempted by the fine weather, Herr
Anderfuhren, an engineer from Inter
laken. set out from the village of Grin
delwald with two good guides, Egger
and Kaufmann, and q porter named
Schlegal. All went well for the first
part Of the ascent, and the party were
congratulating themselves, when sud-
denly in the afternoon q snow storm
swept down, and rapid progress was inn
peded. Schlegal, the porter, who was
not q very experienced climber, fell i'll
when the expedition was within half an
hour Of the hut, and there was nothing
for it but to leave the poor fellow be-
hind. His companions arranged to go
forward and clear q path, and, having
opened the hut door, they promised to
return and help. the porter slowly to.
shelter. They all but Schlegal got over
an awkward cravasse, and when the hut
was in sight Egger volunteered to return
man who was still faint and heavily
burdened. Egger got back to the crew
asse and shouted for the sick man, but
rs he had not arrived so far. the guide
thought it safer to return again to the
hut and fetch Kaufman, whose expert
ence would be in valuable in q dilemma.
After all this unfortunate delay night
had closed in, and the two guides nat
uraily knew that it was impossible 10
find the sick or probably dying man
without some sort of lantern. There
was no such thing in the Bergli hut, but
happily there was found an old wine bot
tie. Necessity is the mother of inven-
ton, SO Egger knocked the bottom of
the bottle, and, sticking q candle into the
neck, improvised fair light, safe from
the wind and sufficient to discover the
track. Kaufman helped Egger safely
over the crevasse, and then, for some
unaccountable reason left his friend to
find the sick porter while he returned
alone to the engineer, who was safe and
sound in the hut. Kaufman had scarce
II gone beyond reach Of voice when the
improyised lantern failed, and Egger
discovered, to his dismay, that the can
die was out and he had no matches.
This was q sufficiently serious predica-
ment, but his shout to Schlegal was an
swered, and the brave fellow Igroped
his way on his hands and knees through
| the snow to where the porter was still
ting side by side, endeayored to obtain q
light from some matches the porter luck
| ny had with him.
Scarcely had Schlegal succeeded in
| igniting q match when the worst acei-
dent OF all occurred Egger alarmed
| his friend with the statement that in the
dark he had severed an artery in his arm
with the Jagged end of the bottle lantern.
Both were ignorant of the elementary
| principles of practical surgery, and. rs
| INC suue was pieeoiue " oeesl., sne o.S :
porter plucked up courage ana nurr1eo
on alone to the crevasse, hoping 70
arouse the attention OF those IN the nut.
He had scarcely got Tar when Egger
called him back. The guide felt that he
was dying, and imPlored not to be LEFT
alone. Besides, the porter could NOT
have got over the crevasse without as
sistsnce- Inc predicament was nears- =
ren9ing Inc englneer ana nus guee in
tne nut were PoWertess 70 neiP, as tney
haa no hgnt wns1eyer WIZ tnem, an9
10 nave proceeded among tne rocks ano
precipices would nave been 70 court IN,
stant death. so the bleeding GUIDE ano
his sick companion We're LETT exposed
IN the cold ana darkness. WINE tnose ~
the hut were Kept PRISONERS for lack o.
light
With the first gleam OF dawn Kauf
mann and the Swiss engineer, carefully
roped together, went back in search o.
the missing man, and both were still
alive when they were found: Egger was
rapidly bleeding TO death from the sc,