The perils of wandering in the high Alps remain terribly real, and are only to be met by knowledge, courage, caution, skill, and strength; for rashness, ignorance, carelessness, the mountains still leave no margin, and to these three-fourths of the catastrophes which shock us are to be traced. Mountaineering without guides is not a thing to be encouraged. The mountaineer’s instinct on rock and ice is an art quite as subtle and complex as the art of the seaman or the horseman. The senses all awake, the eye clear, the heart strong, the limbs steady yet flexible, with power of recovery in store and ready for instant action should the footing give way, such is the discipline which these terrible ascents impose. The mountain guides are not ignorant, they are licensed only after severe examination. They are obliged to take courses of study; they are taught topography, and how to read a map and find their way by it; to use the compass and the other instruments that are indispensable in journeys of exploration; they are also taught how to bind up wounds, so as to be able to do what is necessary at once in case of accident; in a word, they are brave, modest, affable, sunburnt, and scarred men, who have planted a flag on every summit, and who have lent to the stern and awful mountains the romance of mountaineering. It is understood that a true Swiss guide is literally “faithful unto death;” that he does not hesitate to risk his own life for the sake of his charge, and that instances are known in which it has not only been risked but actually sacrificed. Many accidents in mountain-climbing have resulted from an insane effort to dispense with the services of accredited guides, or disregarding their directions. In the short space of not quite a month, in 1887, eighteen tourists lost their lives; one accident on the Jungfrau involving the loss of six. The fate of blind guides and those they lead is set forth in unmistakable terms by the Scriptures. Choose for your guides the hardy men who have learned their business thoroughly, who have been chamois hunters from their youth, who have lived on the mountains from their birth, and to whom the snows and rocks and the clouds speak a language which they can understand, and then accident is almost impossible. Roping is the common and safest precaution, especially for ice traversing. A slip-knot is passed over each climber’s head and shoulders and drawn tight under the arms. It cannot be particularly pleasant, for at times the one in front makes a spring, forgetting others are tied behind him, and takes them unawares, nearly pulling them off their feet; then, on the other hand, oblivious of the person behind you, suddenly you are checked in the middle of your jump, perhaps, over a crevasse, or when standing in a little niche on a steep wall of ice a thousand feet high. The graceful alpenstock, so often seen in the hands of Swiss tourists inscribed with its roll of triumph, must be taken _cum grano salis_.