MATTERFIORN (Fr. Mont Cervin.; Italian, Monte Silvio), the grandest mountain mass of the Alps, located near Zermatt in Switzerland between the Canton Valais, and the Val d'Aosta in Italy. Its height is 14,805 ft., but that fact alone gives little idea of the sublimity of its abrupt rise above the great range of which it is the sentinel peak. The vast glaciers around it have their upper sources in snows at the foot of this .nighty crag, which rises on its northerly face in a sheer precipice nearly 4,000 ft. above them_ Seen from the pass of St. Theodule or Mont Cervin it takes the form of a craggy cone, apparently inaccessible. From the Italian side one sees its neck or comb connecting. it with the rest of the range; and this side forms the only suggestion of an approach to its summit. Previous to 1858 it was deemed impossible of ascent. The professional guides of the Alps held it in awe. But English enthusiasts in mountain climbing had long looked upon its defiant steeps with lonoing eyes. During the summers of 1858-59 two well-organized parties attempted it and could get no further than about 2,200 ft. below its summit. In July, 1860, three young Englishmen of the name of Parker, without a guide, succeeded in mountinc, to the height of 12,000 feet. Prof. Tyndall in 1860-61, seems to have been possesseewith a fever of desire to tread its summit; and made a series of determined attempts, in one of which he had a marvelous escape from death in an avalanche. In spite of his courage and skillful use of means he was baffled, after reaching a point 500 ft. higher than had been reached before. In July, 1862, he made a third attempt and reached the height of 13,970 ft.; but accident and the elements were against him, and again he was disappointed. It was reserved for a London engraver,
August Edward'Whymper, who had recently gained his first experience of mountain climbing in the French Alps, to make the first ascent to the summit after two carefully planned but unsuccessful efforts in the summers of 1863-64, he, with a party of fnendk succeeded, July 15, 1865, in reaching the summit. But it ended in a fearful tragedy. Lord Francis Douglass, the Rev. Charles Hudson, Mr. Hadow, and four guides made up the party; starting from Zermatt on the 14th. While descending in fine spints a. miss-step by one of the party caused the fall of ft ("nide, and the breaking of their con. neeting rope; when the three gentlemen named, anbd one of the best guides were hurled down the vertical face of the mountain upwards of 3,000 feet. Three days tater the summit was reached from the Italian side by Jean Antoine Carrel, a professional SWISS guide. with others. Mr.Crawford Grove and party reached it in 1867. Mr. Elliot and two guides In 1868 ascended it from the north side. Prof. Tyndall ascended.it about the same time from the south side, passed over its crest, mid descended on the north. Its ascent is now made less poilons by a hut built at a height of 12,526 ft., and by the familiarity of guides with the most dangerous points, andthe means to surmount them. Tyndall's Hours of Exercise in the Alps gives a vivid description of his attempts to ascend. the Matterhorn in 1860-61. Whymper's Scrambles Amongst the Alps published in 1871 is,.
hb'avever, the most remarkable book of mountain climbing ever published; and besides litiug devoted largely to the attempts to scale the Matterhorn, is profusely illustrated with drawings sketched and engraved by himself.