Show j THE ALPINE DEATH ROLL I I inciilcniH Timt Kave Happened to Foolhardy Siplstsccrs I Any one who visits the churchyards of I I j Chamounix Zermatt Grin elwald and many other beautiful spots in the Alpine I I regions will see pathetic evidence that i the great mountains in the neighborhood I have exacted a terrible penalty for the invasions of their solitudes The tombstones I tomb-stones testify that the Alpine death roll is a heavy one And many of the promising j I prom-ising lives that have thus so tragically I ended might have been spared if only ordinary j I or-dinary caution had bean taken and some 1 intelligent foresight exercised It is safe j to say that nearly 80 per cent of the accidents ac-cidents in the Alps are due to preventable prevent-able causes I LieutenantColonel Hill had been I spending the winter in Italy and in common I com-mon with other winter migrants to the Sunny South he crossed the St Gothard I when the Italian heat began to assert itself it-self and halted for a brief sojourn in beautiful Lucerne For some time the weather in Switzerland had been wild and stormy and on the slopes of the mountains an unsual quantity of snow had fallen On the 7th of May however there came a slight change The sky displayed dis-played patches of blue and the sun shone down in fitful gleams Tempted by the partial fineness of the morning Lieuten I antColonel Hill started off toward Pila I tus He was not a mountaineer but is said to be an excellent walker Every visitor to Lucerne is familiar with the imposing im-posing and rugged mass of Pilatus whose ancient name Fractus Jbns broken I mountain was singularly applicable It has about eight distinct peaks and there I I are two hotels near the summit To each of these hotels is an excellent mule road and the ascent can thus be nvtde in about I three and a half hours from either of the startingpoints which are Hergiswyle AlpnachGestadt and Alpnach respectively respect-ively Guides are quito unnecessary and children not yet in their teens might under un-der ordinary circumstances be trusted to find their way to the top without running any risk But when snow lies deep on the mountain and mistwreaths cling to its shattered sides the condition of things is entirely altered and there is danger even to the experienced mountaineer while to him who has no such experience the risks are great Colonel Hill went from Lucerne to Hergiswyle which is one hours drive and partaking of some refreshments re-freshments at a hotel there he mentioned his intention of going up the mountain He was informed that it was decidedly dangerous to attempt it in the unsettled weather then prevailing but probably i thinking that the people who thus warned I him exaggerated the risks Colonel Hill would not be deterred and when once he had been lost sight of by a turn in the rising road no human eye ever again beheld be-held him alive It is not difficult to comprehend com-prehend how the accident happened The pinnacles of Pilatus caught the storm clouds floating over and down they swept in eddying mists The unfortunate gentleman I I gen-tleman becamed confused lost his way and walked over a stupendous precipice Three weeks later after daily search his body was found lying on a vast field of snow that led away from the base of the precipice This accident is a type of many which every season serve to cast a gloom overlie over-lie tourist resorts A few years ago Dr Moseley an American gentleman in the very prime of life and full of great promise prom-ise had been spending his holidays in Switzerland He was a first lass moun taineer and had done nearly all the big peaks As a windup to his excursion he ascended the Matterhorn in company with some friends The summit was attained tamed without any unusual interest but during the descent Dr Moseley felt the rope to which he and his friends were attached tached to be irksome He expressed him self as quite capable of going down the precipitous rocks without the precaution of the rope and at last insisted on being untied In a little while a mass of projecting I jecting rock was gained It was or is usual to mount this rock by the simple expedient of leaning an ice ax against it and using the head of the ax as a step By this means the rock is mountedly easily and with the minimum of a risk Dr Moseley attempted to leap on the rock missed his footing shot over the hideous precipice and in a few seconds was shattered corpse many hundreds of feet below Had he remained tied to the rope such an accident would have been almost impossible Another sad case is that of Sir George Young and his brothers broth-ers James and Albert who ascended Mount Blanc without guides or porters They reached the summit and started to return but missing their track fell over an ice precipice Singularly enough two of the brothers escaped with comparatively tively little injury hut the youngest one was killed Still more recently two celebrated cele-brated guides Peter Rubi and Roth of Grindelwald together with a Dr HaIler perished on the Lauternarjoch by falling into a Crevasse They were on their way from the Grimsel Hospice to Grindel wald and started off in bad weather although al-though advised to delay their journey Their bodies r believe were never recovered re-covered and the only traces of the accident acci-dent were some bloodstains that the searchers found on the ice wall of a crevasse crev-asse London Daily Times |