A NIGHT ON THE BERGLI.

Patea Mail, 2 June 1882, Page 1 (Supplement)

A NIGHT ON THE BERGLI.

The Geneva correspondent of the Times writes, under date November 19 : —“ A strange, and to one of the parties concerned, a fatal, accident occurred a few days ago in the Bernese Oberland, On Sunday last the weather, as it has been for a month past all over Switzerland, being fine and abnormally mild, Herr Anderfunren, engineer of Interlaken, set out from Grrindelwald for the Bergli hut, which he had undertaken to reconstruct. He was accompanied by the guides Egger and Kaufmanm, and by a porter of the name of Schlegel. The first part of the ascent was accomplished with ease, but in the afternoon deep snow was encountered, and the progress of the party became slow and difficult. Then Schlegel fell ill, and half an hour before the hut was reached they were compelled to leave him behind. He thought that with a short rest he would be able to follow them; and it was agreed that aftei the others had cleared a path and opened the hut, the two guides should. return to meet him. A little higher up they had to cross a crevasse, which Schlegel could not have got over alone; and as soon as the hut was in view Egger went back to help the sick man over the obstacle, and to fetch the bag of provisions, some candles, and the lantern that Schlegel had been carrying. But when Egger neared the crevasse there was no sign of Schlegel, and, fearing that he might have become worse and would require rather to be carried than merely helped, he went back for Kaufmaun. By this time night had fallen, and a light of some sort being indispensable, Eggerknocked the bottom out of an empty wine bottle, which they found in the hut. and by putting a candle into the neck improvised a very fair lantern. Thus equipped, the two guides made their way to the crevasse, where they were rejoiced to hear a shout from Schlegel, and to learn that he was not so bad as they feared, and that he required the help of only one of them. On this Kaufmaun, after giving Egger a lift over the crevasse, returned to the hut, leaving his companion to bring up the porter and his bag. By this time it was seven o’clock and quite dark, and a few minutes afterwards Egger’s candle went out. Unable for lack of a match to relight it, he was compelled to grope his way partly on his hands and knees in the direction of Schlegel’s voice, whom he eventually succeeded in reaching. Then the two men, seated side by side on the snow, began to seek for matches and trim their lanterns. Just as Schlegel struck alight he heard Egger call out that he had cut himself. It was too true; the poor fellow had severed the radial artery of his right arm with the jagged edge of his bottle lantern. After vainly trying to stop the bleeding, Schlegel set off for the crevasse, with the intention, if by any possibility he could make his voice heard, of summoning the others. But he had only gone a few yards when Egger called him back; he felt that he was dying, he said. All night long the two men lay on the snow, Egger bleeding slowly to death, and Schlegel, by reason of his illness and long exposure to cold, little more than alive. In the meanwhile, Herr Anderfuhren and Kaufmann remained in the hut, ignorant of what had befallen their companions, and utterly unable to afford them any help, or even to ascertain what had become of them. Egger had taken the only candle they had, the others being in the bag, and the night was so dark that to have ventured forth among the precipices that surrounded them, and the rifts, which in every direction intersected the track, would have been to court destruction. Towards three o’clock, however, the darkness being by that time somewhat less intense, they left the hut, and, roped firmly together, made with the utmost caution, for the crevasse. This they safely crossed, and, guided by the light of Schlegel’s lantern, succeeded in reaching the spot where the two m n lay. Both were in a pitiable condition, and Egger’s arm was still bleeding profusely. Herr Anderfuhren’s and Kaufmaun’s first proceeding was to. take off

their flannel shirts and give them to their disabled comrades, who had suffered terribly from the cold. Then, after a hurried consultation, they resolved to descend to Grindelwald with all speed for more strength and a surgeon. Unfortunately, and as strangely as unfortunately, it occurred to none of them to contrive a tourniquet, as with a pocket-handkerchief and the butt of an alpenstock, they easily might have done, and bind up the wounded man’s arm above the cut. Long before they could return Egger was dead, and on the following day his body was carried down to Grindelwald. Schlegel is seriously ill, and it is doubtful if he will recover. Egger’a life was insured in the Guides’ Insurance Society, organised, I believe, by the Swiss Alpine Club ; but as its policies cover only the risks of the ordinary climbing season, and expire in October, his widow and children are left altogether without provision, except such as may be granted by the Commune and subscribed by the charitable.”