Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1905-08-01
TRAGEDY OF
MATTERHORN
BODY OF LORD FRANCIS DOUG.
LAS MAY BE FOUND THIS
YEAR.

cent Of the Matterhorn some 40 years
ago, and was buried in the mountain
SHOWS beyond recovery. A dispatch
from Geneva stated that the Zmutt
glacier has been descending rapidly
and regularly for 40 years, and that
it has been estimated that the part
of it on which the Alpine climber fell
will reach the valley this summer, and
that the body of Lord Francis, EN-.
balmed in the ice, may be given up.
His sister says, commenting on this
| statement, that she was a child at
the time the accident happened, but
she remembers that when her brother
was leaving home for the Alps he ask
ed that If he should be killed his
remains might be buried on the spot.
She says she will take every step to
ascertain if her brothers body be de-
livered from the glacier, and she asks
those in the neighborhood to keep
watch and communicate with her Lob.
don solicitor. Lord Francis Douglas,
son of Marquis of Queeusberry, start
| CN lOAl A/CI mail, July 100 LOW, w
climb the Matterhorn. There were
with him Edward Whymper, Rev.
Charles Hudson, Mr.. Hadow, and
the guides, Michael Croz, one of the
best mountaneers in Switzerland, old
Peter Taugwalder, and his two sons;
only one of them, however, young Pc
ter, went up the peak. The party
reached the summit of the Matterhorn
| and IL ic alainn1 thov tho fret
to make the ascent. In descending
to Zermatt valley, Croz led the way,
Hadow followed, then Hudson, then
Lord Francis Douglas, and then old
Peter. These were all roped togeth-
er but Whymper and young Peter,
who had delayed to put the names Of
the party in bottle on the summit,
came in the rear ropeSl by them
! selves
The Difficult Climb.
Whymper says that at the difficult
part of the descent in mid-afternoon,
Lord Francis asked him to tie on to
old Peter as the guide might not be
able to hold his ground if slip oc-
CURED. Wymper's story of the fall
is as follows: Michael Croz had laid
aside his AK, and in order to give
Mr. Hadow greater security, was TAX
ing hold of his legs, and putting his
feet one by one into their proper posi-
tions. AS far as | know, no one was
actually descending. | can not speak
with certainey, because the two lead
ing men were partially hidden from
my sight by an intervening mass of
rock, but it is my belief, from the
movement of their shoulders, that
CroZ, having done as | said was in
the act of turning round to 90 a step,
or two himself; at this moment, Mr..
Ha,low slipped, fell against him and
knocked him over. | heard one start
led exclamation from Croz, then saw
him and Mr.. Hadow flying downward;
in another moment Hudson was drag
ged from his steps, and Lord F. Doug
las Immediately after him. All this
was the work of moment. Immedi-
ately we heard CrOZ's exclamation, old
Peter and planted ourselves as firm.
ly as the rocks would permit; the rope
was taut between us and the jerk came
on us both as on one man. We held,
but the rope broke midway between
Taugwalder and Lord Francis Doug.
las. For few seconds we saw our
unfortunate companions sliding down.
ward on their backs, and spreading
out their hands, endeavoring to save
themselves. They passed from our
sight uninjured, disappeared one by
one, and fell from precipice to preci.
pice on to the Neutrality-suspicious. be.
low. a distance of nearly 1000 feet
in height. From the moment the rope
broke it was impossible to help them -
The bodies of Hudson, Hadow and
CrOz we're recovered but no trace of
Lord Francis Douglas body was ever
found.
The Breaking Rope.
/ Whymper, in his narrative, says
that there were three ropes and that
the one which broke was the weakest
old and feeble and never intended to
be used save as a reserve. to tie on
the rocks. He throws all the respon'
sibility on old Peter and describes
both the surviving guides as behaving
like abject towards. and while pro-
Tossing not to believe that the father
had any design in putting the old rope
below himself. contrives to throw
suspicion on him, and to intimate that
such suspicion was general and natur
al; and he even remarks suggestively
that though he proposed series OF
questions to old Peter, so framed as
to make exculpation easy. the court oil
inquiry which investigated the mat
ter for the government never sent him
the answers. The idea of body fall
ing into crevasse of glacier and
being recovered many years afterward
has been used in literature, of course
since it was discovered that the glac
Ter flows downward like a slow river
and it forms the ground work of very
pretty little story, MRS. Knollys." by
Frederic Stimson. The heroine of the
sketch loses her husband in the great
Pasterzen glacier in western Austria
while they are on their wedding trip
and she returns to find him after As
years.
Quietly. But Surely.
i Describing the glacier. the writer
says: 1t flows in a straight, steady
sweep, a grand avenue guarded by
great mountains, step and wide: a
prototype. huge and undersigned. of the
giants stairway in the Venice pal.
ace. No known force can block its
path: it would need a cataclysm to
reverse it's progress. What falls up.
on it moves with it. what lies beneath
it moves with it-down 10 the polish
ed surface of the earth's frame. laid
bare; no blade of grass grows so slow.
ly as it moves, no meteor of the air
To-