A TRAGEDY ON THE MATTERHORN.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2125, 15 November 1890, Page 4

A TRAGEDY ON THE MATTERHORN.

Not even the records of Alpine adventure, in which there have been gloomy pages enough, offer anything more ghastly than the detailed accounts which we now have of the Sinigaglia accident on the Matterhorn. Ibree unfortunate men were overtaken by a terrible storm, battered with hail and ice, and beleagured under a rock. At last they attempted to struggle forward, but the veteran Carrel, after fruitless endeavors to keep up with his companions, suddenly sank dead at their feet from exhaustion. The rope had at this time become a solid bar of ice, and when Gorrett attempted to get at his knife in order to cut it his jacket was so completely frozen that he could do nothing. We are thus presented with the dreadful spectacle of the two half-living men compelled to <?rag after them as they staggered along the body of their dead companion, until at length a friendly rock thrust itself across their path, and onabled Gorrett to sever the rope with bis axe upon its surface. 80 ended this terrible revival of the mediaeval torture of binding the dead with the living. There was no time for so much as the funeral rite of three bandfuls of snow. Sinigaglia and his guide pressed on. but escaped to carry for do short space the marks printed on them of their battle with the elements, and to bear about with them the memory of the tragedy in which they played a part probably until their dying day.