The Glaciers of the Alps: Being a narrative of excursions and ascents, an account of the origin and phenomena of glaciers and an exposition of the physical principles to which they are relatedTyndall, John
Science
The Glaciers of the Alps: Being a narrative of excursions and ascents, an account of the origin and phenomena of glaciers and an exposition of the physical principles to which they are related
Tyndall, John
Alps -- Description and travel; Glaciers -- Alps
I returned to the grotto, where supper was prepared and waiting for me.
The boiling point of water, at the level of the "kitchen" floor, I found
to be 196 deg. Fahr. Nothing could be more picturesque than the aspect of
the cave before we went to rest. The fire was gleaming ruddily. I sat
upon a stone bench beside it, while Bennen was in front with the red
light glimmering fitfully over him. My boiling-water apparatus, which
had just been used, was in the foreground; and telescopes,
opera-glasses, haversacks, wine-keg, bottles, and mattocks, lay
confusedly around. The heavens continued to grow clearer, the thin
clouds, which had partially overspread the sky, melting gradually away.
The grotto was comfortable; the hay sufficient materially to modify the
hardness of the rock, and my position at least sheltered and warm. One
possibility remained that might prevent me from sleeping--the snoring of
my companion; he assured me, however, that he did not snore, and we lay
down side by side. The good fellow took care that I should not be
chilled; he gave me the best place, by far the best part of the clothes,
and may have suffered himself in consequence; but, happily for him, he
was soon oblivious of this. Physiologists, I believe, have discovered
that it is chiefly during sleep that the muscles are repaired; and ere
long the sound I dreaded announced to me at once the repair of Bennen's
muscles and the doom of my own. The hollow cave resounded to the
deep-drawn snore. I once or twice stirred the sleeper, breaking thereby
the continuity of the phenomenon; but it instantly pieced itself
together again, and went on as before. I had not the heart to wake him,
for I knew that upon him would devolve the chief labour of the coming
day. At half-past one he rose and prepared coffee, and at two o'clock I
was engaged upon the beverage. We afterwards packed up our provisions
and instruments. Bennen bore the former, I the latter, and at three
o'clock we set out.
[Sidenote: "SHALL WE TRY THE JUNGFRAU?" 1858.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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