ich a human figure is discernible to the naked eye merely
as a point. The bank from which the cliff rises, _c_, _recedes_ as
it falls to the left; so that five hundred feet may perhaps be an
under-estimate of the height below the summit. The straight sloping
lines are cleavages, across the beds. Finally, Fig. 4, Plate 25,
gives the look of the whole summit as seen from the village of
Chamouni beneath it, at a distance of about two miles, and some four
or five thousand feet above the spectator. It appears, then, like a
not very formidable projection of crag overhanging the great slopes
of the mountain's foundation.

[Illustration: FIG. 76.]

[82] At an angle of 79 deg. with the horizon. See the Table of angles,
p. 181. The line _a e_ in Fig. 33, is too steep, as well as in the
plate here; but the other slopes are approximately accurate. I would
have made them quite so, but did not like to alter the sketch made
on the spot.

[83] Professor Forbes gives the bearing of the Cervin from the top
of the Riffelhorn as 351 deg., or N. 9 deg. W., supposing local attraction
to have caused an error of 65 deg. to the northward, which would make
the true bearing N. 74 deg. W. From the point just under the Riffelhorn
summit, _e_, in Fig. 78, at which my drawing was made, I found the
Cervin bear N. 79 deg. W. without any allowance for attraction; the
disturbing influence would seem therefore confined, or nearly so, to
the summit _a_. I did not know at the time that there was any such
influence traceable, and took no bearing from the summit. For the
rest, I cannot vouch for bearings as I can for angles, as their
accuracy was of no importance to my work, and I merely noted them
with a common pocket compass and in the sailor's way (S. by W. and 1/2
W. & C.), which involves the probability of error of from two to
three degrees on either side of the true bearing. The other drawing
in Plate +38+ was made from a point only a degree or two to the
westward of the village of Zermatt. I have no note of the bearing;
but it must be about S. 60 deg. or 65 deg. W.

[84] Independent travellers may perhaps be glad to know the way to
the top of the Riffelhorn. I believe there is only one path; which
ascends (from the ridge of the Riffel) on its eastern slope, until,
near the summit, the low but perfectly smooth clif