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Java the UML way integrating object oriented design and
programming Else Lervik Digital Instant Download
Author(s): Else Lervik, Vegard B. Havdal
ISBN(s): 9780470854884, 047085488X
Edition: English language ed
File Details: PDF, 58.13 MB
Year: 2002
Language: english
This page intentionally left blank
Java the UML Way
Integrating Object-Oriented Design and Programming

Else Lervik and Vegard B. Havdal

S0r Trondelag University College, Trondheim, Norway

Translated and sponsored by tisip

JOHN WILEY & SONS, LTD

V: tlSlD
'
First published in the Norwegian language as Programmering i Java, © 2000 Else Lervik and Vegard B. Havdal,
The TISIP Foundation, and Gyldendal Akademisk

English language edition

Copyright © 2002 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd,
Baffins Lane, Chichester,
West Sussex PO 19 1UD, England

National 01243 779777

International (+44) 1243 779777
e-mail (for orders and customer service enquiries): cs-books@wiley.co.uk
Visit our Home Pag on http://www.wileyeurope.com

All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by
any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except under the terms of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, 90 Tottenham Court
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Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publishing Data (applied for)

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 0 470 84386 1

Typeset by Cybertechnics Ltd, Sheffield

Printed and bound in Great Britain by Biddies Ltd, Guildford and King's Lynn
This book is printed on acid-free paper responsibly manufactured from sustainable forestry,
in which at least two trees are planted for each one used for paper production.
Contents
Preface xi

1 Introduction 1
1.1 Preliminaries for Reading This Book 2
1.2 Contemplating a Computer 3
1.3 Java Applications and Java Applets 5
1.4 JavaScript and JSP 6
1.5 How This Book is Structured 7
1.6 A Small Example Program 9
1.7 Examples of Applets 15
1.8 New Concepts in This Chapter 17
1.9 Review Problems 19
1.10 Programming Problems 20
2 Variables, Data Types, and Expressions 21
2.1 Example 22
2.2 Data and Variables 22
2.3 Algorithms, Programming Errors, and Test Data 26
2.4 Statements, Blocks, and Names 28
2.5 Variables and Constants 30
2.6 Data Types 34
2.7 Assignments and Arithmetical Expressions 40
2.8 Type Conversion 43
2.9 Calculations for Our Renovation Project 45
2.10 New Concepts in This Chapter 47
2.11 Review Problems 49
2.12 Programming Problems 49
3 Using Ready-Made Classes 51
3.1 Objects as Models of Reality 52
3.2 Using Ready-Made Classes 55
3.3 The Random Class 60
3.4 The String Class 63
3.5 Organizing Classes in Packages 70
3.6 Class Methods and Class Constants in the Java Library 71
3.7 Reading Data from the User 73
3.8 New Concepts in This Chapter 77
3.9 Review Problems 79
3.10 Programming Problems 79
4 Constructing Your Own Classes 81
4.1 Creating Classes 82
4.2 Programming a Class 85
4.3 Access Modifiers - Private and Public 91
 Contents

4.4 Contents of a Class 92

4.5 One More Class and Some New Operators 101
4.6 Introduction to Applets 106
4.7 Introduction to Graphics 111
4.8 New Concepts in This Chapter 118
4.9 Review Problems 120
4.10 Programming Problems 121
Selection as a Control Structure 123
5.1 A Simple Calculator 124
5.2 A Selection is a Control Structure 126
5.3 Blocks inside Methods 131
5.4 The if Statement 133
5.5 Nested if and Multiple-Choice Statements 137
5.6 Boolean Expressions 144
5.7 The Multiple-Choice Statement switch 150
5.8 Comparing Computed Decimal Numerals 153
5.9 The Conditional Operator ?: 153
5.10 New Concepts in This Chapter 154
5.11 Review Problems 155
5.12 Programming Problems 156
Loops as a Control Structure 159
6. 1 Counter-Controlled Loops 160
6.2 A Loop with a General Condition 163
6.3 A Graphics Example 166
6.4 The for Statement 168
6.5 Nested Control Structures 169
6.6 The do-while Statement 171
6.7 Choosing the Right Loop Statement 173
6.8 Controlling Input Data 174
6.9 New Concepts in This Chapter 177
6.10 Review Problems 178
6.11 Programming Problems 178

Collaboration Between Objects 181

7. 1 Examples of Collaboration Between Objects 182
7.2 A Menu-Driven Program 190
7.3 Several References to the Same Object 197
7.4 Summary: Argument Passing 202
7.5 New Concepts in This Chapter 205
7.6 Review Problems 205
7.7 Programming Problems 205

8 Java Libraries and Exception Handling 207

8. 1 The Online API Documentation 208
8.2 Making Your Own Libraries 211
8.3 Localization 214
8.4 Sound and Images 218
Contents

8.5 Introduction to Exception Handling 220

8.6 Exception Handling in Detail 226
8.7 New Concepts in This Chapter 236
8.8 Review Problems 236
8.9 Programming Problems 237
9 Arrays of Primitive Data Types 239
9.1 What is an Array? 240
9.2 Copying Arrays 244
9.3 The Month Class for Precipitation Data 247
9.4 Sorting 251
9.5 Searching 255
9.6 The java.util.Arrays Class 256
9.7 Two-Dimensional Arrays 258
9.8 More Than Two Dimensions 265
9.9 Multidimensional Arrays and Object-Oriented Programming 266
9.10 New Concepts in This Chapter 267
9.11 Review Problems 268
9.12 Programming Problems 268
10 Arrays of Reference Types and Array Lists 271
10.1 An Array of Reference Type 272
10.2 Array Lists 275
10.3 Wrapper Classes - Integer, Double, etc. 278
10.4 The Methods - equals() and toStringQ 281
10.5 Associations 283
10.6 A Bigger Example 285
10.7 The Comparable and Comparator Interfaces 296
10.8 Sorting Arrays and Array Lists 298
10.9 New Concepts in This Chapter 304
10.10 Review Problems 305
10.11 Programming Problems 305
11 Using Data Files and Streams 307
11.1 Data Files and Streams 308
11.2 An Example of a Data File 309
11.3 Reading Text from a File 311
11.4 Writing Text to a File 315
11.5 Data Files: Summary and Class Descriptions 316
11.6 Reading Numbers from a Data File 320
11.7 Communication with the Console 323
11.8 Binary Transfer of Data 323
11.9 Random Access to the Contents of a File 325
11.10 Serialization 329
11.11 New Concepts in This Chapter 335
11.12 Review Problems 355
11.13 Programming Problems 336
 Contents

12 Inheritance and Polymorphism 339

12.1 Generalization and Specialization 340
12.2 Inheritance 342
12.3 The Material Class with Subclasses 345
12.4 Handling Instances of Subclasses as a Whole 351
12.5 The Renovation Case with Many Surfaces and Many Materials 354
12.6 What if Polymorphism Didn' t Exist? 357
12.7 The Protected Access Modifier 360
12.8 Two Levels of Inheritance 364
12.9 Rules and Syntax 369
12.10 Interface 372
12.11 New Concepts in This Chapter 376
12.12 Review Problems 377
12.13 Programming Problems 378

13 GUI Programming and Events 383

13.1 GUI Components 384
13.2 Pushing a Button 388
13.3 Inner Classes 395
13.4 Managing the Layout 402
13.5 New Concepts in This Chapter 412
13.6 Review Problems 413
13.7 Programming Problems 413

14 Text, Choices, and Windows 415

14. 1 Text Components and Focus Listeners 416
14.2 Giving the User a Choice Between Alternatives 423
14.3 Choices Using Check Boxes 425
14.4 Choices Using Radio Buttons 428
14.5 Choices Using Lists 431
14.6 Windows 439
14.7 Making a Window 441
14.8 Differences Between Applets and Applications 446
14.9 Other Ways to Program Listeners 448
14. 10 New Concepts in This Chapter 450
14.11 Review Problems 451
14.12 Programming Problems 451

15 Creating User Interfaces 453

15.1 Menus 453
15.2 Toolbars 458
15.3 Dialog Windows 461
15.4 GridBagLayout as Layout Manager 476
15.5 The Table GUI Component (the JTable Class) 481
15.6 GUI for the Renovation Project 484
15.7 New Concepts in This Chapter 495
15.8 Review Problems 495
15.9 Programming Problems 496
Contents

16 Threads 499
16.1 Threads in Processes 500
16.2 Dividing Time Between Threads 502
16.3 Example of Threads in Use 503
16.4 Thread States 507
16.5 Communication Between Threads 508
16.6 Locks and Synchronization 510
16.7 More Control: wait(), notify(), and notifyAll() 515
16.8 Peeking at the Threads with JDB 519
16.9 New Concepts in This Chapter 521
16.10 Review Problems 522
16.11 Programming Problem 522

17 Data Structures and Algorithms 523

17.1 Graphs 524
17.2 Lists 526
17.3 The Solution: Collection, List, and Linked List 534
17.4 Queues and Stacks 538
17.5 Recursion 540
17.6 Trees 542
17.7 Trees in the API 550
17.8 Hashtables 553
17.9 New Concepts in This Chapter 558
17.10 Review Problems 559
17.11 Programming Problems 559

18 More about Applets 561

18.1 What Applets Do on the Web 561
18.2 Security 562
18.3 Programming an Applet 565
18.4 Security in Practice 570
18.5 Communication Between Applet and Browser 572
18.6 New Concepts in This Chapter 575
18.7 Review Problems 576
18.8 Programming Problems 576

19 Distributed Systems with Socket Programming and RMI 579

19.1 Sockets 580
19.2 Objects That Collaborate over a Network 586
19.3 How Does Communication Between the Objects Occur? 594
19.4 RMI and Applets 600
19.5 Deployment Diagram 600
19.6 A Distributed System with Callback 603
19.7 New Concepts in This Chapter 614
19.8 Review Problems 615
19.9 Programming Problems 615
 Contents

20 Programming with Databases 619

20.1 Database Drivers 620
20.2 Establishing Contact with a Database 621
20.3 A Bigger Example 628
20.4 A Database Application 634
20.5 The Three-Layer Architecture 640
20.6 Transactions and Compiled SQL Statements 641
20.7 New Concepts in This Chapter 645
20.8 Review Problems 645
20.9 Programming Problems 646

21 Web Programming with JavaServer Pages 649

21.1 Different Ways of Programming for the Web 650
21.2 Installing Software 651
21.3 Servlets 652
21.4 JavaServer Pages (JSP) 657
21.5 What Does JSP Consist of? 658
21.6 Inputting Data from the User 662
21.7 Client-Side Validation with JavaScript 671
21.8 Databases 672
21.9 Storing State Information 680
21.10 New Concepts in This Chapter 695
21.11 Review Problems 696
21.12 Programming Problems 697

Appendices
A Using Java SDK and WinEdit 699
A.1 SDK 699
A.2 Running Applets 703
A.3 WinEdit 703

B Keywords 705
C Number Systems 707
D The Unicode Character Set 711
E HTML and Applets 713
F Exceptions to the Code Standard 717
References 719

Index 721
This textbook was designed for higher education in technological fields where Java
and object-orientation form the basis of programming education. This book covers
both basic and more advanced programming.
The book assumes a general familiarity with computers, operating systems, and
the most common tools (such as, for example, word processors and browsers).
Readers should be familiar with concepts like "file" and "directory" and know the
difference between internal memory (RAM) and storage (for example, the hard
disk).

A foundation in object-orientation
When using Java as an educational language, it makes sense for readers to deal with
object-oriented ways of thinking as soon as possible. To a large extent, modern
programming consists of using ready-made components and classes. It's possible
to make a Java program that draws geometric figures, displays images, and plays
sound files without using anything more complicated than sequential control
structure. We believe that graphics and graphical user interfaces will motivate
further study into both object-orientation and programming in general, more so
than difficult control structures and textual user interfaces.
Readers will be introduced to the Java API for the first time in chapter 3. We'll
introduce the standard JOptionPane class which makes it possible to create
programs with primitive graphical user interfaces. We'll also use the Random and
String classes. This will teach readers to use ready-made classes and at the same
time provide a general introduction to object-oriented ways of thinking.
Once readers have used ready-made classes, we believe they will want to find out
what these classes look like inside. We devote quite a bit of space to creating our
own classes, a broad and comprehensive topic. In chapter 4, the readers will get to
create their own applets with simple geometrical figures where they can control the
shape, colors, and fonts themselves.
With this as a foundation, more classes follow to demonstrate the need for
selection and loop control structures.
 Preface

Object-oriented thinking and modeling go hand in hand with programming

throughout this whole book. Nevertheless, for beginners to be able to run Java
programs, their first read-through of the book will probably focus on programming
details. Later perusals will contribute more to readers lifting their gazes up beyond
the details of the code.
Using ready-made classes is part of developing the ability to think abstractly and
understand encapsulation. We've chosen to make do with this in the first half of
the book. We consider event handling, which is required to write programs with
"real" graphical user interfaces, to be so complicated that the time for it comes only
after most of the pieces of the Java language and object-orientation in general are
in place. If it is included too early on, we believe that the degree of "mystery"
behind it remains too high.

This book is not just for beginners

Because of an early, and therefore very thorough focus on object-orientation, we
believe that this book is suited to professional programmers with backgrounds in
non-object-oriented solution methods and programming languages. These readers
will be able to sail through many of the programming details in the earlier chapters
and concentrate instead on the object-orientation aspect, as illustrated with simple
code examples.
Readers with backgrounds from another object-oriented programming
language, C++ for example, will recognize quite a bit in the first part of the book.
They should, however, peruse this material quickly, primarily because there are a
number of essential differences between Java and C++, but also because the
conceptual apparatus differs somewhat between the two languages. Examples of
where Java differs from C++: in Java, arrays are objects with built-in knowledge of
their own length, exceptions are thrown if you try to refer to an array element with
an invalid index, space has to be allocated for all objects using the new operator
(you cannot put objects on the stack), objects that no longer have references are
removed automatically, it's not possible to program true multiple inheritance,
there's no operator-overloading, it's not possible to manipulate pointers, etc.
Java's rich Application Programming Interface (API) will be of particular interest
to readers with backgrounds in other languages. The Swing library makes it
possible to create platform-independent graphical user interfaces. The classes for
managing strings and arrays of dynamic length are easy to use. Familiar data
structures such as linked lists, trees, and hashtables are built in as part of the Java
API. Remote Method Invocation (RMI) makes it easy to create distributed systems
in the form of objects that cooperate over the network. Java Database Connectivity
(JDBC) is a collection of classes that can communicate via database drivers with
just about any database system. JavaServer Pages (JSP) is a technique for
programming dynamic Web pages. The programs run on the web server and
generate customized Web pages.
Unified Modeling Language (UML) as a modeling language
One of the most welcome events in recentyears in the field of object-oriented analysis
and design was when three gentlemen, Booch, Jacobson, and Rumbaugh, joined
forces and created a single common modeling language, Unified Modeling Language
(UML). This language is a standard accepted by the Object Management Group
(OMG), and we will gradually introduce elements of the language as we proceed.
We start with a class diagram that illustrates a single class in chapter 3, and gradually
add more classes using associations and generalizations. We use an activity diagram
to illustrate control structures, threads, and other parallel processes. Sequence
diagrams are very convenient for showing how objects send messages to each other.
In the last few chapters of the book, we use deployment diagrams to show how the
different parts of a distributed system depend on each other and run on physically
different machines.

Software
The software necessary for writing Java programs can be downloaded free from the
Internet. This book builds on the Java 2 SDK. The SDK is available on Sun's Web
pages (http://java.sun.com/). This book explains how the package is used. In
addition, you'll need a good editor. Alternatively, you can use an integrated
development environment, for example JBuilder Foundation, which you can get
from Borland's pages on the Internet (http://www.borland.com/jbuilder/).
To develop dynamic Web pages with JavaServer Pages (chapter 21), the reader
needs a web server. The book gives instructions on installation and use of a free
web server, LiteWebServer from http://www.gefionsoftware.com/.

Resource page on the Internet

This book has its own Internet page, http://www.tisip.no/JavaTheUmlWay/, where
you'll find all the examples, as well as answers to all the shorter problems and
many of the programming problems. The page also includes a number of relevant
links.

Teaching aids
The book includes several teaching aids: every chapter starts with the chapter's
learning goals and ends with a list of the new concepts introduced, review
problems, and more involved programming problems. In addition, most
subchapters end with shorter problems, where the reader is encouraged to actively
work with the material that was just covered.
The book's Internet page (see above) includes a set of overheads that go with
each chapter. The overheads are based primarily on the book, but also contain
some examples and figures not found in the book.
 Preface

The book's structure

The basics
The first nine chapters provide the requisite foundation in programming.
The first chapter introduces the topics of programming and Java and lays out the
prerequisites we're assuming the readers have. This chapter also covers the various
typographical elements used in the book.
Chapter 2 provides a necessary introduction into the topics of variables, data
types, and expressions. Chapters 3 and 4 focus on object-orientation and the goal
of the chapters is for the readers to learn to use ready-made classes and to make
their own classes. Readers will become familiar with important object-oriented
concepts like servers, clients, attributes, messages, and operations. They will
understand that there's a difference between objects in reality and objects in
programs. Readers will create their own first applets with simple geometrical figures
in chapter 4.
Chapters 5 and 6 cover the control structures of selection and loops.
Object-orientation is again the focus in chapter 7, where we'll look at message
exchanges between objects. This requires a thorough understanding of how
arguments are passed between objects, and we'll go through a number of
programming details, some of them difficult.
We now believe the reader is ready to use the online documentation that comes
with the SDK. Chapter 8 offers a brief introduction to this. Using the ready-made
classes that come with the SDK requires familiarity with exception handling in Java.
Therefore, this is also covered in chapter 8.
Chapter 9 covers arrays of primitive data types. Simple sorting and searching are
discussed. The chapter also covers the use of ready-made methods for this purpose.

Intermediate topics
This part of the book will prepare readers to make comprehensive programs with
graphical user interfaces. This requires extensive use of the Java API and a thorough
understanding of the concepts in an object-oriented system (such as associations
and generalizations, for example).
Arrays of reference types are essentially different in their structure and behavior
from arrays of primitive data types. Therefore, we've chosen to treat these in a
separate chapter along with the ArrayList class, which is a class that hides
reference arrays with dynamic lengths. For many practical purposes, this class is
better suited than an ordinary array of reference type. Chapter 10 also covers classes
with prepared sort-and-search methods including classes that make it possible to
take a country's character sets into consideration.
Chapter 10 introduces further relationships between objects in the form of
associations. We emphasize a demonstration of the transition from class diagram
to program code.
Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
course, the Runner, for want of his element.
As soon as they dared, people hurried up to the Vermala rock.
There they found the remains of a new and unexpected kind of
habitation. The drooping branches of a mighty fir appeared to have
been pinned to the ground by frost, consequent upon the piling of
snow upon their extremities. Then snow had been piled up higher
and higher around the tree, embedding other branches as it rose,
which were cut away from the trunk, except at the top, where they
stretched out in the form of a snow-covered dome. There had thus
arisen a pyramid-shaped dwelling enclosed in walls of ice, for the
snow had clearly been brought to transparency by the application of
heat from within. And thus was explained that wonderful effluvium
of light, the shimmer of which looked so sinister from afar. It is even
said that some children picked among the tufts of green grass which
here and there began to grow about the floor of the abandoned hut,
pieces of a yellow amber-like substance which shot forth sparks
bathed in a soft purple radiance, when seen by them in the darkness
of their own homes.
No wonder that people spoke of Vermala in fearsome strains!
What a pity the most beautiful spot in the country was haunted!
In the ensuing winters, things went from bad to worse. People
ceased visiting the plateau de Crans for pleasure. Do you fancy, they
said, that strangers henceforth will ever set foot upon this ground,
unless it be for their sins?
 ABOVE RIED, LOETSCHENTHAL.

To face p. 90.

So much tribulation turned the feebler heads. Folk no longer

understood each other aright. They got confused over names. Those
who called La Zaat by its name were rebuked by those who called it
La Chaux Sei, and those parties both fell out with the supporters of
the name Bellalui. No one was quite clear about the identity of Petit
Mont Tubang and Grand Mont Tubang. They were in a mist as to
Petit Mont Bonvin and Grand Mont Bonvin. Everybody confused one
and all of these with the Tonio de Merdasson. In short, the mind of
the country-side was muddled, now that all eyes saw double when
they looked in the direction of Vermala.
Old men, however, stiffened their backs and spoke in firm voices
above the new Babel of tongues. They said it had always been
known before their time and would ever hereafter be manifest, that
the crest that is visible from Lens is the brow of Bellalui, and they
clinched the matter with the reminder that when Bagnoud the mayor
built his new house, he called it Bellalui after the mountain.
 As it happens, it was at Lens that the meteoric personage once
more called attention to himself.
Truth to say, though there was no one who did not expect his
return, there was nevertheless a general shudder when Jean Perrex
who had gone to Saillon, brought back the news that “he” was
known to have brought out of the stable the horse which had lately
been bought with a new cart, to show visitors over the country. “He”
had put the horse to the cart without collar, traces, or bridle. Without
whip or ribbons, he had driven to St. Pierre de Clages. He had tied
the horse to the church door. Then he had sat down on the grass at
the foot of the Norman tower, between the beehives of the curé and
the wasps’ nest that is there sunk in the soil. Nobody could say how
and when they had seen him. It would have been useless to ask
what he was like. But it could not but be he, since the abandoned
horse and cart had been impounded, and the church was now
sinking more rapidly than heretofore.
The most convincing testimony, however, was that of Claudine
Rey. Her brother was in the habit of walking out with a girl who had
a situation in a hotel in Brigue. One night he had clambered up the
wall to the terrace, when the moon suddenly grinned through the
clouds. Then, instead of the girl he was to meet, whom should he
see there to his right in the arbour but “him” in the shape of a
dwarfish, wizened wiseacre, clutching in his right hand a death’s
head, and with the fingers of his left running rapidly along the lines
of a book of charms!
When, on St. Martin’s eve, this account was given to the worthy
curé of Lens, who had gathered about his hearth some of his
parishioners to crack in goodly company the arolla nuts roasting in
the ashes, the dear old man shook his head; his mind was running
on the words “Get thee behind me, Satan.”
Then a gentle scratching was heard on the panes of the closed
window. The gathering looked that way and most turned pale. The
first snow of the coming winter was swirling and whirling against the
glass, borne on the soughing wind. And the bluish purple light
poured forth from the wells of memory into the sockets of their
eyes.
The curé came out with his guests on his way to trim the church
lamp. A thin layer of snow covered the village lanes. He cast about
him furtive and mistrustful glances. The pure white carpet was as
yet unsullied by footprints. Would “he” come?
Now this curé was a bit of an astronomer and a clerical moralist.
He took every care of the sundial of his church tower and had
adorned it with an inscription, in two expressive lines:—

“Le temps passé n’est plus, l’éternité commence.

Pensez-y donc, mortels, et pensez-y d’avance.”

That night he stared at it. The piece of advice was as good as

ever. But the involutions of the meridian mean curve, drawn with
such careful exactness on the stone and painted with such a light
hand in the gayest colours, struck him now as being the exact
counterfeit of the ribbons on the snow. Was he not breaking away
from his ordinary piety in accusing his church dial of taking after an
un-Christian pattern? Surely, he was wronging his dial. And the good
curé kept poring over the unholy coincidence, in so far at least as his
mind could find time to spare for meditation upon matters of
paramount importance.
On the morning of St. Martin’s Day, the village showed itself to be
all in a tangle of loops. The diabolical spoor went in and out round
every house. The figure eight of the sundial had thrown off
innumerable copies upon the ground. The bells were tolled in vain.
To no purpose did the chimes peal. In vain did the most Christianlike
of all suns that ever poured its kindly light upon Lens, kindle the
most reassuring smile upon the wrinkled stones of the old tower. Not
a single parishioner was bold enough to spurn with his foot the
cabalistic loops that embraced the bosom of Mother Earth in their
oppressive grasp. Not a child dare step across them, not even to go
and dip his fingers in the holy water at the church door.
 The most thunder-struck was the curé. A truculent pentagram in
red chalk was displayed all over his distich, surrounded by a double
circle that looked like a green fairies’ ring designed in moss upon the
church tower.
As for the good men of the largest commune in Canton Valais,
they bethought themselves of a day of fasting, the natural remedy
for their orthodox faith to point out. But there was a sign against
that too. The pewter pots and mugs of the village tavern appeared
that morning all set up in a row upon the railings of the churchyard
gate, upside down. They would have to be fetched and brought back
to their proper place. The hardiest commoners were summoned.
They took heart from their thirst. The general anxiety was soothed
by such an obvious way of drowning care.
The frequenters of the forests, whether they were honest day-
labourers or night-birds, knew alone, beyond all doubt, the identity
of the mischief-maker. For them the prime mover in the big upset
was none other than the Strubel, about whom the village elders
would still relate, in the dim light of the evening fires, dreadful
stories of an ancient stamp, such as suggest themselves in the
woods after dark, when the old tree stumps are phosphorescent and
glow-worms come out of their retreats to set up their tiny lamps on
the edges of the rocks.
Of all creatures born of local lore the Strubel was to them the
nearest in kin. When the north wind blows the Strubel races from
crest to crest, from the Gemmi to the Rawyl, and from the Rawyl to
the Gemmi. Up there his long white shock of hair streaming in the
wind, and upturned by the gale, spreads as a plume across the sky.
The tumbling folds of his beard fill the precipitous ravines. A hail of
icicles rattles out of his roaring breast. The rush of his huge body,
soaring amid snowflakes and in glacier dust, awakens the
slumbering elements. At night the Aurora Borealis gathers in
streamers around his brow. At dawn and at sunset a diadem of
snow-crystals sets a many-coloured band about his hoary head. He
flies, and his feet do but tip the top of the peaks, and his stature
rises aloft in an immense upward sweep. In a blue-and-white
transparency, such as one sees in glacier crevasses and in pure ice
water, the spring of his sinuous limbs uplifts him to the confines of
atmosphere and firmament.
Such is the poetic picture of the dread being which the shepherds
still worship secretly, far down in the recesses of their primitive
hearts. And it is he whose image the antics of an enigmatic ski-
runner revived for several winters, as our story shows, under the low
and gloomy roofs of the white-hooded chalets.
There is an evening hour, when, after cooking and partaking of
the day’s last meal, the family gathers round the domestic hearth.
Then the last embers are fanned into a congenial flame. The dying
light of the hearth kindles anew the memories of a bygone age. Is
the time near when these will die out for want of fuel, as the flame
of that hearth when the family goes to bed? But why should we link
any melancholy after-thought with their well-earned rest? The
thought of the reward granted to their toil pleases one’s moral
sense. Yet he who, like me in this chapter, uses figments of the past
as a page decoration, cannot but regret that such picturesque
elements should be gradually, but surely, vanishing for ever from the
face of our modern world.
The accepted idea is that things have progressed. So they have. A
nice hotel crowns the Vermala rock. At night real electric light of
industrial origin has taken the place of the fantastic rays of old.
There is a chauffage central, fed with colliers’ coal, and stoked by
porters who never could produce heat without matter and on terms
that were not commercial. Now people dance at Vermala, they have
music at night, they lounge about in smoking-jackets, and, when all
is said and done, I am one of those who most enjoy the new
situation.
Did I ever meet the Ski-runner of Vermala? I should have a vague
fear of being caught prevaricating should I answer either Yes or No.
Truth sometimes dwells in half-way houses.
 I was staying at Vermala last winter. The glacier de la Plaine-
Morte, and the ascent of the Wildstrubel, were objects which a
young man of my party kept steadily in view. It was his second
winter holiday in Switzerland. A much-travelled man, he had camped
out in Persia, and endured thirst and hunger in some of the most
God-forsaken spots of the globe. How would he fare in the
Wildstrubel country? A man may have done very well in sandy
deserts and yet find himself out of his depth in snow. He had ski, but
would they do as much for him on these charmed snows as a
camel’s spreading feet had done in the desert?
So we set forth late one morning, after paying the usual penalty to
the photographic fiend. So great an honour conferred by a number
of fair women inspired us with proper pride. It was a most
strengthening draught to harden us against the trials that might be
in store, but it also worked so insidiously as to cause us to overlook
the wise saw of the most bourgeois of French fabulists: “Rien ne sert
de courir, il faut partir à temps,” which, topically rendered, might
mean: “A man who has started late need never hope to make up for
lost time when going uphill on ski.”
The glacier de la Plaine-Morte lies at the altitude of 9,500 feet
approximately, measured at the brim, or lip, which we had to
overcome before we could dip down to the surface of that shroud of
the dead. We were setting out for it from the altitude of 5,500 feet,
and allowing for unavoidable “downs” that would break the upline,
we had quite 5,000 feet of vertical displacement before us.
At whatever hour of the day we might have started we had that
much to ascend by sunset, if we wished to reach the Hildebrand hut
in comfortable circumstances, and so the true bourgeois spirit would
have us do. Had we been in military mood we should have borne
with the dictates of punctuality. Unfortunately we had received
attentions that had raised us beyond ourselves. We chose to trust
our elation to bring us on over the ground. But the 5,000 feet we
had to ascend would not grow less. The sun would not delay its
progress. The ups and downs would not smooth themselves out,
however much gentle pressure our planks might bring to bear upon
them. The refreshing compliments we had stored up would not
check the flight of time.
All too early Night put in a punctual appearance upon the scene.
She found us, indeed, sailing gently along the shroud of the dead,
but far from the place prepared to shelter weary Alpinists.
We seemed to be in for the same adventure as a friend of mine
who spent the night wandering on the glacier during a wind and
snowstorm. The dead then might almost have been moving under
their shrouds in every direction. He did not lose his way, but was
impressed by solitude and by the weirdness of the shifting snows, let
alone the fatigue that loosened his limbs. He confided to me quite
lately how odd he still thought it that he did not go off his “chump.”
Anyhow, Mr. B., my present companion, decided that he saw
something happy in the situation, the beckoning finger of a friendly
fate, that would guard us while we spent that January night on the
open glacier. The air was still and clear. The cold might be keen, but
not sharp, though somebody since would absolutely have it that the
thermometer marked that night at Vermala 2.2 Fahrenheit.
As Mr. B. was anxious to view this escapade as a fit counterpart to
his nights in the Persian desert, the situation could be accepted with
equanimity. He was possessed of the true romantic spirit. Poor man!
He was afflicted with much thirst. I had, unfortunately, nothing
better to offer him than the carefully worded expression of my regret
that he had not been able to get himself fitted up, before he left
Persia, with some of the valuable water compartments of his
Bactrian camels. So by ten o’clock we laid ourselves demurely down
on the angular glacier moraine, pretty confident that long before the
hour struck for the sun to rise, we should be anxious to roll the
shutters away from the Palace of Dawn.
On the contrary, when the sun stepped out of his car upon the
glacier and, at the most reasonable hour of eight on the clock,
knocked us up, we were still reclining in our alcôve. Shall I say that
we found at our bedside shaving water and a cup of tea? No, for this
would be a really undue elongation of truth. But we saw the “boots”
busy lighting odd scraps of paper and slipping them into our shoes
to soften the frozen leather. We thanked him and were about to tip
him when he took fright and flew away upon a sunbeam, leaving
behind a pot of blacking and an electric brush.
If I ever did set eyes upon the Ski-runner of Vermala, it was
during that night, nor could it have been in a better setting than on
the Plain of the shrouded Dead. In fact, in the supposition that he is
a person that never existed, the glacier de la Plaine-Morte would cry
out for him.
Glaciers are legion, but there is only one glacier de la Plaine-
Morte.
Measured with tape, its size, as our readers have learnt in a
preceding chapter, would come out at a few miles.
Sir Martin Conway, in his “Alps from End to End,” comes nearer to
conveying a correct impression, because he measures it by the
standard of his own mind.
Those who have in any weather entrusted themselves in winter to
that ice cup scooped out of the top of lofty Alpine battlements, may
alone imagine in its true character the Alpine world as it was in
those dim and distant days, when half Europe would have been too
small to hold the glories of the Plaine-Morte in its prehistoric stage of
being.
Since last year (1911), a cable railway runs passengers up from
Sierre to Montana-Vermala. Some day, perhaps, the railway may be
taken 5,000 feet higher. It would then pass the place where we
spent the hours of our mystic night, alternately watchful and asleep,
taking in the immense charm that flowed in upon us, and seeking in
short terms of slumber rest from our meditation.
 WILDSTRUBEL AND PLAINE MORTE GLACIER.

To face p. 100.

The amateurs of mountain scenery whom the rail may bring up

here will not be so single-minded about it as we were. They will look
for something else to lie upon than a gritty stone bed. They will
allow a wooden barrier to intercept the pulsation of nature on its
way to their souls. They will not catch in full the gracious calls which
pass in the stillness between heaven and earth, and roll in
harmoniously upon the mind, as a sonorous shore echoes the beat
of the waves. My young companion, more restless because the
situation was so overmasteringly novel, looked around for
distractions which I needed not. I have often stood, or lain, like that,
looking from the outside upon the play of life in which I otherwise
bear my faint part. I like to withdraw from the stage of the company
directed by Messrs. Time and Space in which we are, with as much
humbleness as the master dramatists could be with pride,
composers, actors, and managers of some small theatrical
contribution. I am then doubtful whether I feel some approach in me
to the lotus eater’s frame of mind, or whether I rejoice in the
overflowing energy of the superman.
There is a deep meaning in the Gospel passage that shows us the
Son of man being led upon a hill, and upon a temple pinnacle, that
He may be tempted by the sight of those aspects of the world which
it was His mission to forswear, combat and finally to overcome by
the spirit and succumb to in the flesh. It is on pinnacles such as
these that we may behold ourselves.
Let us see. Is he who learns his philosophy by conversation with
the mountains not at once a lotus eater and a superman? He
acquires from them a firm conviction that—

“Il mondo va da sè.

Le monde se fait lui-même;”

which apophthegm breathes the spirit of abdication and is a source

of weakness for him.
On the other hand, the conscious personal power by which he
overcomes the savage forces and the blind puttings-forth of might
by Nature, does mark him out as instancing in himself human
courage, a well-created physique and some superiority.
When his energy is excited, he caresses the illusion that he could
crush his fellow beings, if he thought it worth doing. But his dignity
forbids. His fellows need have no fear, for there is some taming
effect in his haughtiness. The loftiness of his spirit lames his hand
for battle against those in whom he hardly recognises his like.
He cannot take the affairs of men so seriously that he would whip
up in himself the ambition to take after Napoleon or Cæsar.
When he is in lotus-eating mood, the Rubicon is really too big a
thing to be crossed lightly.
When he is in his superman’s temper, the undertaking is indeed so
small that it is not worth while that such as he should be bothered
with it.
 The Swiss, as a people, have shown in a high degree that such is
the mental composition of a true mountain race. Left for six hundred
years to their unbroken line of development, they show in the
successive layers of the formation of their national mind the stages
of the process.
They first won in the Alps, by arms, sufficient room for
themselves, and set round their borders a ring-fence of impassable
pikes. Then, turning to supermen, they fought the battles of others,
for the sake of war, despising power, and moving untempted in the
domains of kings.
In the nineteenth century, the reflective mountain spirit gained
hold on them. They held war as an immoral pursuit and ceased from
being mercenaries. But their contemptuous loftiness remained.
Without despising their former glory they, as it were, drew into
themselves and drew themselves up at the same time.
They have become the typically lotus-eating neutral nation in
Europe, supermen still in a way and armed to the teeth, but with
swords ever sheathed and with bayonets ever resting in the
scabbard.
In their national life the Swiss practice political self-education, and
would do so rather than seek the means of making their influence
felt among nations. The Swiss are but a small and insignificant
nation, but their history shows that, disillusioned of mere strength,
they passed to the consciousness of a moral identity.
They became self-centred, and liked to keep aloof from other
people’s affairs. They formed the conclusion that—

“Le monde se fait lui-même.

Il mondo va da sè;”

and, in the public life of Europe, assumed the part of spectators and
political moralists.
 For Napoleon, a mere village or two were a sufficient stake for
which to set Europe ablaze. With material means, he built up a
political society that soon crumbled away. Had the French been by
temperament lotus-eating supermen, would they have followed him?
They too would have answered him with the words—

“Le monde se fait lui-même.

Il mondo va da sè.”

The victories of fourteen years could not make a Buonapartist

Europe.
What subsists of the Superman’s adventure? It had been just as
well for him, had he stood on the edge of the glacier of the Plaine-
Morte, withstanding temptation, though he had thereby shorn Elba
and St. Helena of their title to fame.
The bent of the mountaineer’s mind is turned inwards, towards
the education of self. As a superman he pits himself against nature,
to man he is kind and just. He is the lotus-eater who would forget
the things, the seeking after which would turn him away from self
tuition.
He is a kind of Marcus Aurelius who does the share allotted to him
in the common task, and then withdraws into his higher self,
preserving a kindly interest in those who have built up no such
upper chambers.
That sort of man is not an adept at self-sacrifice, because sacrifice
is the opposite of education. If he entirely gave himself away, he
would have no inner garden left to cultivate, and in which to plant
his own vine and sit under his own fig-tree. But if you need not
expect him to die for you, or live for you, neither does he expect you
to do the like on his behalf. Mountaineers are known to help each
other when their lives are in danger in cases of Alpine peril. In self-
love they practice self-reliance. “Exercise thyself” would be their
motto.
 Why? because the mountaineer believes in his Creator and looks
upon His work as a good piece of work, the quality of which the
creature has to justify in itself. So in the end should the mountaineer
perish at the hands of the forces of Nature which he has, by right of
spiritual conquest, transformed into moral values for the world, with
him it is a case of invicto animo vicit moles.
While I was thus trimming the lamp of my thoughts Mr. B.
contrived sundry little amusements for himself. He brought out of his
bag an extremely smart dressing-gown and bedroom slippers. He
arrayed himself in the former and dressed his feet in the latter. Then
he smoked the few cigarettes he found in his pockets. Then we
shared the frozen sandwiches that were left over for our evening
meal. When those occupations were exhausted, it might almost be
described as a fortunate factor in the situation that his thirst would
not depart from him. How to slake it became the main concern that
whiled away the long hours of the night for the sleepless Londoner.
The problem was as follows: being given snow ad infinitum and a
very fair quantity of ground coffee beans, how to produce a
refreshing and fortifying beverage whose supreme quality consists in
being black, hot, pure, and strong:—

“Noir comme le diable,

Chaud comme l’enfer,
Pur comme un ange,
Fort comme l’amour;”

but which, under the circumstances, would be valued principally for

its quantity.
The improvised cook looked about him for a coffee-pot. He found
nothing in his bag that would do. But there was in mine a small tin
pot which had resided there from time immemorial. It was
somewhat dented with age, and bore many signs of the hardness of
its lot, though its office was of a quite amiable description. It carried
about my smoked glasses and sundry silk veils. I liked to have these
by me—though I personally never use them—because they often
came in conveniently to relieve from the glare of the sun those
tender-skinned representatives of the fair sex who insist on not
making sufficient preparations to go over glaciers. The pot contained
also some cotton wadding, tintacks, pins, and such like necessaries
of hut life. With regret I poured these forth upon a dry patch of
ground, and committed the pot to the mercies—whatever they might
be—of the would-be cook.
Some time later our camping ground was wrapped in a sheet of
light. I looked round. My friend had done wonders. He had scooped
a nice square hole in the snow and planted in it our lantern, in which
he had stuck and lit one of our tapers. The light from the taper had
suddenly flashed upon the scene through the transparent wall of
snow. Then some of the coffee was poured into my tin pot, and this
was placed on the top of the lantern and lumps of snow were
heaped upon the coffee.
Then began the labours of Hercules. The snow in the pot melted
very properly, but that which walled in the stove would do likewise.
It either fell in and smothered the lantern below, or else fell from
above and put out the taper.
All night long the cunning of the young engineer was kept devising
means of meeting every fresh emergency. Anyhow, at every watch in
the night I was kept supplied with a few mouthfuls of hot coffee.
So well did this suffice that, on striking our tents at eight o’clock—
façon de parler, for we had between us but one dressing-gown to
take off before revealing to an astonished world the effectiveness of
our Burberrys—we gave no thought to the Rohrbachhaus, but made
our way straight to the Wildstrubel, between the Raezli and
Lämmern glaciers.
Once more the popular notion that to allow one’s self to fall asleep
on an open glacier is to court an awakening in the other world, had
been effectually dispelled. Provided one is clad to perfection in
weather-proof material, with chamois leather underwear over the
usual woollen undergarments, one need have no fear as long as the
air is still and free from falling snow.
On the contrary, in a violent snowstorm and with a heavy wind,
nothing but an actual place of shelter can afford sufficient
protection. For all that some people will push their dread to the most
ridiculous extremes. I met, not very long ago, a young German, an
otherwise doughty lad, who, rather than spend the night in one of
the extremely comfortable Concordia huts on the Aletsch glacier,
preferred, after coming up on ski the whole way from the
Loetschenthal, to reach Rieder Alp in an exhausted condition, at
much greater risk than if he had stopped on the way.
It is reported by de Saussure that the dread with which the men
hired by him in Chamounix to ascend Mont Blanc looked forward to
the night which must unavoidably be spent on the glacier des
Bossons, was the main difficulty he had to contend with in keeping
up their morale. No sooner had they reached the spot marked out
for pitching the tents, than they dug for themselves an underground
recess and buried themselves therein, as though they expected a
hail of bullets to pepper them all night. Yet, they had hardly been
herded together for half an hour, when such a terrible epidemic of
heat broke out among the huddled pack that they dribbled out one
after another, saying they preferred a fair battle with the elements to
such a process of extinction.
The history of the construction of Alpine huts enables us to trace
the progress which public opinion has made since. The first huts
were simply caves, walled in on the open side with a rough stone
dyke, and on the floor of which was strewn some straw, while a few
utensils and a stove lay about, all higgledy-piggledy, with some logs
of fir or pine wood. They were dirty, damp dens.
Now, such ill-conditioned refuges have been given up as an
absurd and rudimentary conception of our forefathers. They sought
a well hidden away nook. We choose the most exposed spur of hill
that is near our route. We build on high, preferring places exposed
to the full fury of the blast, and we erect wooden houses that appear
too fragile to resist the violent onset of the storm fiends. But such
refuges as these are dry and airy, the snow has but little chance of
choking them up. The light shining through the windows when a
party is gathered therein after dark, is as a mast light on ships
anchored at sea.
The stored-up wood keeps dry. The emergency provisions that a
party may leave for the next—a party perhaps less favoured—do not
rot away. And when the sun shining upon those lofty mansions lights
up the yellow or brown pine wood, a sense of near comfort and of
coming security pervades the weary traveller’s breast and warms the
cockles of his heart.
This progress has to be paid for in the form of a light tax levied
upon the traveller to defray for the Swiss Alpine Club some portion
of the expense incurred in keeping the huts in order and regularly
supplying them with fire-wood. The original characteristic of the
huts, which were intended to be mere emergency refuges open
gratis to all, has somewhat suffered in this respect from the new
policy. Visitors are now requested in most of them, by an
appropriate notice, to deposit their contribution in a receptacle
fastened to the wall. This may be the most convenient way of
collecting the money due. But it means that sums of money—not
inconsiderable in the opinion of any one badly in want—are left for
rather long periods in uninhabited premises which are far from being
inaccessible.
It has happened that cash-boxes have been rifled. A less
objectionable way of managing this little piece of business is surely
within the resources of civilisation. It is not justifiable that any other
premium than wholesome exercise and natural beauty, should be
held up as an inducement to make an excursion on the glaciers of
Switzerland.
While here on the subject of huts, the awkward position which
their great multiplication of late years entailed upon the British clubs,
may be suitably laid before the reader. As the huts of the Swiss
Alpine Club became more and more frequented, questions of
preferential rights of admission came to the fore. It was obvious that
non-Swiss clubs, able to grant terms of reciprocal admission to the
Swiss, must obtain for their members, in the Swiss huts, preferential
rights over Alpine clubs who were so by genuine profession and yet
had no local habitation in the Alps or elsewhere in which they might
hope to offer hospitality in their turn, as an acknowledgement of
hospitality received.
Consequently, when notices were put up in the Swiss Alpine Club
huts, which number now from seventy-five to eighty, showing what
clubs enjoyed a right of admission on the score of reciprocity, the
absence of any and every English club struck the eye. English
visitors were then able to realise that they had been drawing benefit
from the hospitality provided—for all and sundry, it is true—by a
large body of private persons in Switzerland. In spite of every desire
to remedy this situation by contributing to the expense of building
and maintaining the Swiss huts, English climbers could not obtain a
definite locus standi, for want of being able to come under a
reciprocity clause. Even at present it would be idle to hope that
English clubs may be quoted by name, beside the Swiss, French,
German-Austrian, and Italian clubs. But the following arrangement
was come to, on the initiative of English climbers, and with the
concurrence of the Swiss Alpine Club:—
1. A committee was formed in London, of an administrative
character, to serve as a rallying point for Englishmen who might wish
to enter one of the sections of the Swiss Alpine Club. The members
recruited in that fashion for the Swiss club formed an association of
British members of the Swiss Alpine Club, which is recognised by the
Swiss club, but has no corporate existence within that club.
2. The new association, which now numbers little less than 400
members, started a subscription with a view to providing the Swiss
club with funds sufficient for the building of a first-class hut on the
Klein Allalin Horn above Saas Fée, at the expense of £800. This hut
was built by the care, and will remain under the administration of
the Geneva section of the Swiss Alpine Club. It was completed and
inaugurated this year (1912).
The Britannia hut deserves particular mention in these pages,
because it has been contributed to by the ski-ing clubs of Great
Britain, on account of the first-rate opportunities it offers for ski
tours in the High Alps. It occupies a central position in the Mischabel
range which, from the top of Monte Rosa to the glacier of Ried that
rolls down from the Balfrin to within 4 miles of St. Niklaus, is one of
the finest ski-ing fields of Switzerland.

The Strubel.
 CHAPTER V
THE BERNESE OBERLAND FROM END TO END
The Oberland circuit—My appointment with Arnold Lunn—An Anglo-Swiss piece of work—An
unbelieving public—Switzerland and Britain—Geographical—Practical—We start from
Beatenberg—The Jungfrau ice-slabs—New Year’s Day at Kandersteg—In the
Gasterenthal—On the Tschingelfirn—Foehn-effects on the Petersgrat—The Telli glacier
—The Kippel bottle-race—A church door—Theodore Kalbermatten—The Loetschen pass
—Burnt socks—Roped ski-ing—The Concordia breakfast-table—Why we did not ascend
the Jungfrau—The Concordia huts—The Grünhornlücke—On snow “lips” and cornices—
An afternoon snooze—The Finsteraarhorn hut—A guideless party—Ascent of the
Finsteraarhorn—Our next pass—A stranded runner—The Grimsel—Home life at
Guttannen—Our sleigh run to Meiringen—A comparison of winter and summer work—
Memories and visions—Table of levels—How to form a caravan—The pay of the men—
Side-slip and back-slip—Future railway facilities.

his the Oberland “circuit.” We left Beatenberg on

December 31, 1908, passed through Interlaken, went
on to Kandersteg, crossed the Petersgrat to the top of
the Loetschenthal, traversed the Aletsch glacier between
the Jungfrau and the Concordia hut, ascended the
Finsteraarhorn, reached the Grimsel hospice, and came
back to Interlaken and Beatenberg, where we were
again comfortably quartered on the night of January 8,
1909.
This traverse was made into an event and marks a
date in the history of Swiss mountaineering. The telegraph and news
agencies announced it far and wide. It was the object of press
articles and flattering references in most countries in which interest
is taken in mountaineering feats. It has been lectured on, and
related in periodicals over and over again.
The reception given to a trip of this kind obeys the laws of
pictorial perspective. Maybe, however, shorn of the benevolent
element so kindly contributed by the public, our expedition is still
worth describing in its true relief, in the light of the impressions of
the two explorers who carried it out.
This expedition, the first of its length at such altitudes at that time
of the year, was an Anglo-Swiss piece of work. It was performed in
company with Arnold Lunn.
We met by appointment at Beatenberg, which his father was then
opening up for the first time as a winter station. Arnold Lunn is as
keen a mountaineer as was ever born under the skies of Britain. His
poetic and adventurous mind is endowed with an exceptional facility
for imaging forth in words Alpine scenery, and for communicating to
others the manly joy which overtakes him in such scenery. He has
the soul of a propagandist and missionary. He is a striking example
of how, with climbers, performance goes before propaganda, unless
one would belong to those who are deservedly marked out as
hangers—on to the exploits of others. There are only too many such
loitering about the Alps nowadays.

KANDERSTEG—FINSTERAARHORN—
GRIMSEL.

(Reproduction made with authorisation

of the Swiss Topographic Service.
26.8.12.)

To face p. 114.

Can there be a more noble spectacle than the sight of one, who
having met young with an extremely serious accident in climbing,
which to all appearance, and according to cool reason, should
confine him to the part of an armchair propagandist and pen-
wielding missionary, yields again to the irresistible call of the Alps,
and ascends the Dent Blanche in spite of the lameness consequent
upon the accident in North Wales in which his right leg was broken
in two places, under such conditions that it has continued ever since
to be a source of daily suffering?
Last winter, on the Eiger, battling with a terrifying snow and wind
storm, my lame friend was three times thrown out of his steps. He
had with him Maurice Crettex, one of the most powerful rock and
snow men, I believe, of the present day among Swiss guides. The
situation would have been frantically impossible but for him. But
what a picture! Two men, side by side, one, all physical strength and
professional devotion to duty, the other, all spiritual energy and
moral force.
It is particularly gratifying that a Swiss and an Englishman should
have been united in showing to ski-runners that the way across the
Bernese Oberland was open from end to end and that the most
magnificent mountain scenery that ever wasted its sweetness upon
the desert air was awaiting them. These were spectacles for which I
was quite prepared, having already moved, like many of my country
men, amid the glories of High Alp winter scenery, ever since some of
the sections of the Swiss Alpine Club (that of Geneva leading the
way), had instituted for their members and friends, the expeditions
known under the name of Grandes Courses d’hiver.
It is, however, one thing that the Swiss should favour such
expeditions, and quite another thing that strangers to Switzerland
should entertain the idea. I understand that when the first accounts
of my winter ascents of the Aiguille du Chardonnet and the Grand
Combin were read, in London, in the pages of the Alpine Ski Club
Annual, there came upon the lips of many competent readers a
smile which partly betokened admiration—which I certainly did not
deserve—and, partly, incredulity—which I certainly expected in some
measure.
Even in Geneva I had at first some hesitation in making known my
Bagnes-Entremonts-Ferret circuit. When I did make up my mind to
send an extremely short and compendious notice to the Journal de
Genève, the editors let my scrap of paper lie six weeks before they
printed it. It was unkind of me to laugh in my sleeve while this long
pause lasted. I did not fare much better after my ascent of the Dent
Blanche. I slipped a word about it into a local but widely read
halfpenny paper, to whose information people “in the know” are
wont not to attach much importance. In fact, some busybodies had
already forestalled my note with a few warning lines to the effect
that any attempt to cross in a consecutive trip the Pennine Alps, in
January, from Mont Blanc to the Simplon pass, would be too
hazardous to prove anything but fatal. And here was a gentleman
who not only had got from Bourg St. Pierre to Zermatt, but
asseverated he had ascended the Dent Blanche.
Some of my colleagues in the Geneva section, desirous of
protecting the good name of their club, and anxious to exonerate
one of the older and more respected members from any charge of
senile self-complacency, explained gravely that it was a printer’s
mistake, and that surely I had written Tête Blanche in my hastily
scribbled manuscript note.
The reader must be told at this juncture that the Tête Blanche is
an insignificant little bump of snow on the Col d’Hérens, of which
those good colleagues of mine, with their knowledge of my climbing
powers, could well trust themselves to say that I might have reached
its summit, without putting too great a strain on my powers. Even
now, another of my young disciples, Marcel Kurz, whose circuits on
ski in the Bernina and Mischabel districts may be followed in two of
the maps appended to this volume, writes me that he is pleased to
hear of its approaching publication, because it may conduce to the
enlightenment of disbelievers, across isolated specimens of whom he
still occasionally comes.
Arnold Lunn, too, has met with ultra-sceptical folks, and a boastful
trait has been read by some into his ardour.
For my part, I am content to look upon our mountaineering
fellowship as a pleasant little incident in the history of Anglo-Swiss
relations. These I much take to heart. There is every reason in the
world wherefore they should be frequent, numerous, and close.
Sometimes, in the flush of after-dinner speeches, I have spoken of
the Swiss as the navigators of the Alps and of the English as the
mountaineers of the sea. There is some similarity in the risks
incurred.
It would be a truism—in fact the repetition of a truism—to say
how English climbers of the middle of the nineteenth century helped
the Swiss in introducing into mountaineering the wholesome element
of risk. “On ne fait pas d’omelettes sans casser des œufs.”
It should not be hidden from the present generation of English
climbers, however, that the example of their forerunners has
perhaps been more thoroughly taken to heart in Switzerland than
among themselves. There is hardly a family or friendly circle in
Switzerland that does not count one of its members in the ring of
those whose life was sacrificed for love of the Alps.
The motives for associating here Swiss and English in my mind are
not solely sporting. It has hitherto been little realised how much
Swiss neutrality and national integrity are one of the bulwarks of the
freedom of Britain’s movements in Europe.
Every effort is being made to join Switzerland more closely to the
economic system of central Europe. In a century in which economics
are considered to offer a more effective political weapon than the
open use of military force, the tightening of the ties of fellowship
between two nations, neither of which can possibly aim at political
encroachments upon the other, may usefully serve to counteract a
less innocent set of tendencies. What with military roads, tunnels,
and railways, the Alpine barrier between the Baltic and the
Mediterranean is being worn very thin.
It needs, probably, no further insistence to show that sentimental
Anglo-Swiss relations may be attended by practical consequences of
some immediate utility. In this network of associations an important
function devolves upon winter mountaineering. The English have no
sporting winter. They have already, in large numbers, adopted the
Swiss winter as what they want to supply home deficiencies. May
this continue and an ever wider bridge of Swiss and British ski be
thrown over the Channel. That this book, among others, might serve
this purpose was one of the motives that impelled the writer when
he put together, for publication in England, such accounts as that
which follows.
At first sight, the title I have given to this chapter may appear
exaggerated. But it will not bear out any such unfavourable
construction, if the reader will charitably recollect that he has
already travelled with me from the western extremity of the Bernese
Alps, visiting from end to end the Diablerets, Wildhorn, and
Wildstrubel range, as a prelude to this excursion beyond the Gemmi
to the east.
Geographically and technically the euphemistic title of this chapter
is not without excuse. The Oberland is theoretically taken to include
not only a western, but also an eastern wing, on to the Galenstock
and Dammastock. Popularly, the name Oberland is understood to
apply to the great range which is cut off on the east by the Grimsel
and Haslithal, on the west by the Gemmi and Kanderthal. Classical
literature agrees with the popular definition, the main point about
which is, for ski-runners, that between those two depressions there
is no pass that does not lead across glaciers.
The Oberland shows, between its extreme points, two parallel
rows of peaks. The northern row overlooks the lakes of Thun and
Brienz. The southern row overlooks the valleys of Loetsch and of
Goms (in French Conches), leading up to the Furka pass. Of those
parallel rows the northernmost, facing somewhat to the west,
comprises the Blümlisalp and the Lauterbrunner Breithorn. The
southernmost, drawing to the east, culminates in the Bietschhorn
and Aletschhorn, and includes the summits which, under the names
of Wannehorn, Galmihorn, &c., look down upon the glaciers of
Fiesch and Oberaar, while the northern row, curving round the
Lauterbrunnen Valley from the Breithorn, is crowned by that
magnificent cluster overlooking both Scheideggs: the Jungfrau,
Mönch, Eiger, Wetterhorn, &c., with the Schreckhorn and
Finsteraarhorn somewhat in the rear.
Between those two rows a high glacial basin takes the form of an
elongated trough. From distance to distance this trough shows
transversal lips (cross-bars or threshholds, if one so prefers to style
them), which are the upper Tschingel glacier with the Mutthorn hut
(9,700 feet), the Loetschenlücke, with the Egon von Steiger hut
(10,515 feet), the Grünhornlücke, between the Jungfraufirn and the
glacier of Fiesch (10,840 feet), and at length the Oberaarjoch
(10,800 feet), between the Oberaarhorn to the north and the
Oberaar-Rothhorn to the south. One sees from the figures quoted
that those glacier passes all reach to an altitude exceeding 9,000
feet. The top of the arc—to speak like Euclid—would pass over the
Finsteraarhorn at an altitude of 14,035 feet.
This high level is, in the opinion of Sir Martin Conway, who
followed it in his journey through the Alps from end to end, the very
finest snow-field in the Alps. It passes at the head of the greatest ice
stream, and is sufficiently remote from the Italian border to escape
the unfavourable influence which the Rhaetic, Lepontine, and
Pennine faces of the Alps have to endure from the hot atmospheric
currents and inordinately violent action of the sun.
“Two things were necessary for the success of this trip,” says
Arnold Lunn in one of his printed accounts; “good weather and
immunity from accidents. We could reduce the chances of accidents
to a minimum by a careful scrutiny of our kit, and we could
reasonably expect fair play from the weather by judiciously choosing
the moment to begin our attack, though, of course, the weather is
always the most fickle factor in determining the success of an
expedition.
“As regards kit, I carried two pairs of gloves, one made of reindeer
skin lined with sealskin, the other a thick pair of woollen gloves, a
woollen scarf, a silk scarf, and a woollen helmet. A spare suit of
underclothing and two pairs of stockings completed the list of extra
clothing. I wore laupar boots and goat’s-hair socks on my feet, with
a pair of crampons in my sack for rock and ice-climbing. And here,
incidentally, let me remark that the ordinary crampon-nails which are
fixed into the sole of the boot soon spoil laupars. The only practical
kind are those which are sold in summer to be strapped on under
the boots.
“I think I have at last found the ideal ski-binding for mountain
work. It is made by a Geneva firm, and was given me by Professor
Roget. It never gave any trouble; it was strong and tough. It did not
vary in tightness with the temperature, and, most important of all, it
could be put on and taken off at a moment’s notice. This is really
essential, as one may meet with short stretches on which it pays to
‘take up one’s ski and walk.’
“I tried, for the first time, a pair of sealskins, and found them
answer admirably. They reduced the labour of climbing by 20 per
cent., weighed hardly anything, and could be taken on and off
without any trouble. An extra ski-tip, a pair of Canadian rackets,
‘climber’s guides,’ maps, &c., completed our kit.”

KANDER GLACIER.
 To face p. 123.
My intention was to use Kandersteg as a starting-point, to land on
the high level, at 9,000 feet, by means of the Kander glacier
gradient, to go down to Kippel, in the Loetschenthal, by the
Petersgrat; to pass through the Loetschenlücke, to drop thence into
the basin formed by the Aletsch névés (the Jungfraufirn and Ewig
Schneefeld of German maps); to rise again to the Grünhornlücke, to
skid down upon the firn of the Fiesch glacier, to overtop this network
of ice-mountains by the ascent of the Finsteraarhorn, to go round
the Finsteraarhorn group on its south side, to return to the north as
far as the Oberaarjoch, to descend the Oberaar glacier to the
Grimsel hospice, to follow thence the posting road and to enter
Guttannen as knights-errant, mounted and spurred—that is, in our
case, on trusty ski and shod with nailed boots, the attire in which we
would leave Kandersteg.
Thanks to the absence of any unpleasant incident, thanks also to
a most obligingly long spell of unbroken weather, the precautions we
had taken enabled me and my companions to carry out this
programme without interruption and without inconvenience. The
“stripling,” Mr. Arnold Lunn, gave proof of remarkable staying
powers. Though our Bernese porters seemed at first to believe that
they were being “let in” for harum-scarum adventures, by which
they discreetly hoped the party might be brought to a standstill after
a few hours’ march, before it could run its head, beyond hope of
escape, into the dangers of this raid, they laid no visible claim to
being wiser than ourselves. They proved themselves to be good and
reliable fellows to the end, and came out of their trials with beaming
countenances, grateful for the lessons they had received in High Alp
ski-running.
We got into training at Beatenberg, where a snowfall delayed our
start for three days, if three days spent on the running slopes above
Beatenberg may be looked upon as a delay. Then, one morning, the
sun, bursting through the snow clouds, showed us the great peaks
of the Oberland looking down on a scene newly painted white. Our
hopes rose high, and making our rucksacks proportionately heavy,
we skied down to Interlaken, losing a bottle of whisky on the way.
Carefully laid on the top of my pack, with its nozzle looking out upon
the world, it flew out, on Arnold’s calling a sudden halt, and broke its
nose against the wall by the roadside. Thus was our expedition
christened straight away, as a launched ship that leaves the stocks.
On reaching Kandersteg, the gossamer banner of ice-dust blowing
off the Blümlisalp showed plainly enough that the gale from the
north, which had brought the fine weather, was still in full swing. My
sympathy went out to any young men who might be then battling up
there with the raging wind, for at Christmas and New Year’s tide the
Alpine huts are much visited by holiday-makers. Indeed, I saw later
from an account published in the Swiss periodical Ski, by Mr. Tauern,
and by Mr. Schloss in the Alpine Ski Club Annual, that those
gentlemen were actually at the time on the Aletschfirn. They had
hoped to ascend the Jungfrau. Under the circumstances the prospect
lost its charm.
As I write, the Jungfrau has not yet been ascended in winter. The
Swiss papers gave out last year that my young friend Fritz Pfeiffer
had succeeded in reaching the top. It was a misapprehension.
Within two hundred yards of the ice-cap that crowns the Jungfrau,
Mr. Pfeiffer, who was accompanying an officer of the St. Gothard
troops, was compelled to fall back before the heap of slabs of solid
ice, with which the combined action of wind and sun had strewn the
way. On these the two distinguished mountaineers were unable to
gain footing. The slabs slipped away from under their feet, or bore
them down in such a manner that they could not have had better
toboggans. Toboggans, however, were not the thing wanted, nor
even such trays or pieces of board as children are fond of using, for
the sake of amusement, in sliding down grass slopes nearer home.
The formation of these ice-slabs on exposed summits of suitable
shape opens up an interesting, and as yet unsolved, question in the
history of natural phenomena. What clearly happens is this. Snow,
driven by a tearing wind, falls against an ice buttress. Then the sun
shines with all its winter power upon the snow that sticks to the
rugged ice. Exposed to the action of two physical agents of great
force, namely, to the heat produced by the sun and to the impetus
of the wind sweeping now with perhaps still greater violence across
a clear sky, the amorphous but plastic mass is cut up and divided by
a process which may be compared, though the analogy is merely
superficial, to what happens to dough in an oven when a hot blast is
driven through it. The dried-up dough breaks up into flakes.
When I first came across that winter phenomenon—I have never
met with it in summer—I was led to compare those piled-up ice-
slabs to the stone slabs of like shape and size which lie on the bare
crests of so many mountains. The supposition lies near that these,
too, may be due to some combined action of pre-existent heat and
supervening wind impetus, in those geological ages when we have a
fancy for imagining that the still plastic earth-crust was blown about
in huge billows by the liquid and aerial elements.
Be this as it may, I hope I may never be uncharitable enough to
desire, for ski-ing parties, an encounter with those ice-slab pyramids.
The caretaker who in winter keeps watch over the Schwarenbach
Hotel had just come down to join in the New Year festivities. He
announced that there was on the heights a fresh layer of snow 30
inches deep. Stoller, a guide of some reputation, whose advice we
applied for, was of opinion that we should put off our departure till
the 2nd of January. The advice might be sound, but I did not like it
because I knew how badly the men I might be about to engage
were likely to spend their time on New Year’s Day. As a matter of
fact, when we did enter the Gasternthal, we found nothing like the
amount of snow that we were told would impede our way. From
Stoller, who had just returned from a week’s engagement to teach
the rudiments of ski-ing to a Swiss club, we heard that all guides
with first-class certificates were away climbing, and that he, having
only just returned, would not be available. We engaged three men,
under his advice and under that of Egger, for whom Arnold Lunn had
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