Only Whymper and two of the guides were saved by the breaking of the rope.
For the space of half an hour we remained on the spot without moving a single step. The two men, paralyzed by terror, cried like infants. . . . Old Peter rent the air with exclamations of "Chamonix! Oh, what will Chamonix say?" He meant, "Who would believe that Croz could fall?" The young man did nothing but scream or sob, "We are lost! we are lost!" Fixed between the two I could neither move up nor down.
It was hours afterward before they descended the mountain and some days before the bodies of three of the unfortunates were rescued; that of Lord Francis Douglas was never found. Some day, perhaps, it will come forth fresh and life-like from the foot of the glacier.
Such were the difficulties of Alpine climbing in 1865. Scarcely can we realize to-day what an achievement this was. Says Javelle in his "Souvenirs d'un Alpiniste ":
After the first ascent of Mont Blanc and until that of Everest the most beautiful conquest of the climbers is certainly the Matterhorn.
Besides his own trials, Whymper describes seven other well-organized attempts to scale the mountain that had been made during the half-dozen years preceding his achievement. The fearful cold, snow storms and almost cyclonic winds of the upper reaches, contributed to the discomfiture of these earlier parties. One might add that while these other climbers were fine, bold mountaineers, they lacked the extraordinary preparedness and resourcefulness, amounting almost to luck, of Edward Whymper.
It may be said that this ascent made little direct contribution to the sum of knowledge. It did have the effect, however, of awakening a widespread interest in the Alps. Of course, the terrible accident contributed not a little to this result. The next few years witnessed the
