Sec. 7. From the slope of the hill above, and to the west of, the village of Zermatt, the Matterhorn presents itself under the figure shown on the right hand in the opposite plate (+38+). The whole height of the mass, from the glacier out of which it rises, is about 4000 feet; and although, as before noticed, the first slope from the top towards the right is merely a perspective line, the part of the contour _c d_, Fig. 33, p. 181, which literally overhangs,[82] cannot be. An apparent slope, however steep, so that it does not overpass the vertical, _may_ be a horizontal line; but the moment it can be shown literally to overhang, it _must_ be one of two things,--either an actually pendant _face_ of rock, as at _a_, Fig. 77, or the under edge of an overhanging _cornice_ of rock, _b_. Of course the latter condition, on such a scale as this of the Matterhorn, would be the more wonderful of the two; but I was anxious to determine which of these it really was. [Illustration: 38. The Cervin, from the East and North-east.] Sec. 8. My first object was to reach some spot commanding, as nearly as might be, the lateral profile of the Mont Cervin. The most available point for this purpose was the top of the Riffelhorn; which, however, first attempting to climb by its deceitful western side, and being stopped, for the moment, by the singular moat and wall which defend its Malakhoff-like summit, fearing that I might not be able ultimately to reach the top, I made the drawing of the Cervin, on the left hand in Plate +38+, from the edge of the moat; and found afterwards the difference in aspect, as it was seen from the true summit, so slight as not to necessitate the trouble of making another drawing.[83] [Illustration: FIG. 78.] [Illustration: FIG. 79.]