him, I wished to give up the proposed mountain climb, but he
eagerly protested that exercise of this kind in the fresh air
could only do him good after the drudgery of his wretched
fiddling. After crossing the little canton of Appenzell, we had
to face the by no means easy crossing of the Santis. It was my
first experience also of travelling over an extensive snow-field
in summer. After reaching our guide's hut, which was perched on a
rugged slope, where we regaled ourselves with exceedingly frugal
fare, we had to climb the towering and precipitous pinnacle of
rock which forms the summit of the mountain, a few hundred feet
above us. Here Karl suddenly refused to allow us, and to shake
him out of his effeminacy I had to send back the guide for him,
who, at our request, succeeded in bringing him along, half by
force. But now that we had to clamber from stone to stone along
the precipitous cliff, I soon began to realise how foolish I had
been in compelling Karl to share our perilous adventure. His
dizziness evidently stupefied him, for he stared in front of him
as though he could not see, and we had to hold him fast between
our alpenstocks, every moment expecting to see him collapse, and
tumble into the abyss. When we at last attained the summit, he
sank senseless on the ground, and I now fully understood what a
terrible responsibility I had undertaken, as the yet more
dangerous descent had still to be made. In an agony of fear,
which, while it made me forget my own danger altogether, filled
me with a vision of my young friend lying shattered on the rocks
below, we at last reached the guide's cottage in safety. As Uhlig
and myself were still determined to descend the precipitous
further side of the mountain, a feat which the guide informed us
was not without danger, I resolved to leave young Ritter behind
in the hut, as the indescribable anguish I had just endured on