Zermatt Thursday 11th Dearest Father. I will supplement the p.c. I wrote Mother as I have a little time to spend before I set out for my hut. I came up here this morning and found Geoffrey Young and a cousin of his with whom I lunched. Mr Young also gave me much good advice and a general introduction to all the mountains that can be seen from here. He is a very nice creature charming to look at, and I am sorry he is going away. However he has served my purpose by giving me a great many useful hints and suggestions for which I am most grateful. My plan is to go this afternoon to a hut, do the Lyskamm tomorrow and possibly down the south side to another hut instead of coming back here, and then the next day over Monte Rosa. This will depend however on whether I am tired or not, for the Monte Rosa day would be rather long. I'm very glad to be up here. Zermatt itself is rather a disappointing place. One sees nothing at all, you remember, but the Matterhorn and the edge of ugly flat ridges Bellow the Theodule Pass, very barren and shapeless. This little inn is very primitive and delightful, I shall stay here a night or so on my way down. There are not quite so many people as at the lower inn, the Riffel Alpe, which is a regular great tourist place with hundreds of beds and balls of an evening. I had a charming dinner last night with the Crowes, dear people. They have been making a walking tour round Mont Blanc and over the Theodule here. They had seen no papers for days and were very eager to hear about the Tariff C. report and what you thought of it. I obliged them as far as I could. This morning when I was looking at maps outside the Monte Rosa hotel, there came up the old porter and said how gratified they were that I had come to climb in these parts. They had heard so often of my doings in the Oberland and were wondering when I should be coming to Zermatt! The mountains are in splendid condition says Geoffrey Young; rocks dry, snow cornices practically nonexistent, the only drawback is that when there is a snowslope it is almost always ice and needs a lot of cutting steps. Ever your affectionate daughter Gertrude.
I've sent you back the Bourget