Page:Whymper - The Ascent of the Matterhorn.djvu/16

viii implement of extraordinary value. In these latter times the pure and pimple alpenstock has gone out of fashion, and mountaineers now almost universally carry a stick with a point at one end and an axe-head at the other. A moveable axe–head is still a desideratum. There is a pick-axe made at Birmingham with a moveable head which is Letter than any other kind that I have seen, but the head is too clumsy to be held in the hand, and various improvements will have to be effected in it before it will be fit for use in mountaineering. Still, its principle appears to me to be capable of adaptation, and on that account I have introduced it here.

After the alpenstock, or axe-alpenstock, it is of most importance for the mountaineer to supply himself with plenty of good rope. Enough has been said on this subject in different parts of the narrative, as well as in regard to tents. Few other articles are necessary, though many others are desirable, to carry about, and amongst the most important may be reckoned some simple means of boiling water and cooking. At considerable altitudes above the tree-line, it is frequently impossible to carry up wood enough for a camp-fire, and nothing but spirits of wine can be employed. The well-known and convenient so-called "Russian furnace" is the most compact form of spirit lamp that I know, and wonders can be effected with one that is only