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Updated: May 27, 2025
Behind were the Bernese Oberland, governed by the Finsteraarhorn, the Simplon and St. Gothard groups, the Disgrazia and the Orteler. Toward the south we looked down to Chivasso on the plain of Piedmont, and far beyond. The Viso one hundred miles away seemed close upon us; the Maritime Alps one hundred and thirty miles distant were free from haze.
We got over the tedious collection of stones and DÉBRIS which covers the PIED of the GLETCHER, and had walked nearly three hours from the Grimsel, when, just as we were thinking of crossing over to the right, to climb the cliffs at the foot of the hut, the clouds, which had for some time assumed a threatening appearance, suddenly dropped, and a huge mass of them, driving toward us from the Finsteraarhorn, poured down a deluge of HABOOLONG and hail.
Overhead a bright, mute, pale-green sky. A hard, cruel frost; firm, sparkling snow; from beneath the snow project grim blocks of ice-bound, wind-worn cliffs. Two huge masses, two giants rise aloft, one on each side of the horizon: the Jungfrau and the Finsteraarhorn. And the Jungfrau says to its neighbour: "What news hast thou to tell? Thou canst see better. What is going on there below?"
In the north-west, the Lake of Geneva and the Jura; then, descending towards the south, a chaos of mountains and glaciers, beyond description, overlooked by the masses of Monte Rosa, the Mischabelhoerner, the Cervin, the Weishorn the most beautiful of crests, as Tyndall calls it and farther off by the Jungfrau, the Monck, the Eiger, and the Finsteraarhorn.
'Close about us it seems purer, answers the Finsteraarhorn, 'but there in the distance in the valleys are still spots, and something is moving. 'And now? asks the Jungfrau, after more thousands of years: one minute. 'Now it is well, answers the Finsteraarhorn, 'it is clean everywhere, quite white, wherever you look ... Everywhere is our snow, unbroken snow and ice. Everything is frozen.
Both of these had accompanied Hugi in his ascension of the Finsteraarhorn in 1828, and both were therefore thoroughly familiar with all the dangers of Alpine climbing. The lower Aar glacier was to be the scene of their continuous work, and the centre from which their ascents of the neighboring summits would be made. Here, on the great median moraine, stood a huge boulder of micaceous schist.
Bitter, cruel frost; hard, sparkling snow; sticking out of the snow, the sullen peaks of the ice-covered, wind-swept mountains. Two massive forms, two giants on the sides of the horizon, the Jungfrau and the Finsteraarhorn. And the Jungfrau speaks to its neighbour: 'What canst thou tell that is new? thou canst see more. What is there down below? A few thousand years go by: one minute.
We got over the tedious collection of stones and DÉBRIS which covers the PIED of the GLETCHER, and had walked nearly three hours from the Grimsel, when, just as we were thinking of crossing over to the right, to climb the cliffs at the foot of the hut, the clouds, which had for some time assumed a threatening appearance, suddenly dropped, and a huge mass of them, driving toward us from the Finsteraarhorn, poured down a deluge of HABOOLONG and hail.
Several thousand years pass by like one minute. And the Finsteraarhorn rumbles in reply: "Dense clouds veil the earth.... Wait!" More thousands of years elapse, as it were one minute. "Well, what now?" inquires the Jungfrau. "Now I can see; down yonder, below, everything is still the same: party-coloured, tiny. The waters gleam blue; the forests are black; heaps of stones piled up shine grey.
Sophia in Constantinople and all the rest that we are struggling for, we men of the town? 'Neither the Jungfrau nor the Finsteraarhorn has yet been trodden by the foot of man! The topmost peaks of the Alps ... A whole chain of rugged precipices ... The very heart of the mountains. Over the mountain, a pale green, clear, dumb sky.
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