Page:Whymper - Scrambles amongst the Alps.djvu/194

154 uneven surfaces, and did not even entirely destroy the destructive work of the older and greater powers: while those powers were at the same time delving into the rocks which the glaciers were not covering; were not reducing the area of exposed surfaces, but, on the contrary, were continually increasing them, and were hurling down vast masses, of which but a small portion fell on to the glaciers (but which small portion probably equalled or exceeded in bulk all that the glaciers were removing), the conclusion can hardly be avoided that glaciers, in their life as well as after their death, either considered by themselves or in comparison with other powers, should be regarded as eminently conservative in their acts and in their intentions.

We finished up the 3d of August with a walk over the Findelen glacier, and returned to Zermatt at a later hour than we intended, both very sleepy. This is noteworthy only on account of that which followed. We had to cross the Col de Valpelline on the next day, and an early start was desirable. Monsieur Seiler, excellent man, knowing this, called us himself, and when he came to my door, I answered, "All right, Seiler, I will get up," and immediately turned over to the other side, saying to myself, "First of all, ten minutes more sleep." But Seiler waited and listened, and, suspecting the case, knocked again. "Herr Whymper, have you got a light?" Without thinking what the consequences might be, I answered, "No," and then the worthy man actually forced the lock off his own door to give me one. By similar and equally friendly and disinterested acts, Monsieur Seiler has acquired his enviable reputation.

At 4 we left his Monte Rosa Hotel, and were soon pushing our way through the thickets of grey alder that skirt the path up the exquisite little valley which leads to the Z'muttgletscher Nothing can seem or be more inaccessible than the Matterhorn