August 28 Wednesday – Sam and Joe walked six hours from Zermatt to Riffle and took rooms in a hotel there. Sam noted that

“The guide-book calls it 7 miles…but we found by the Pedometer it was only 800 yards. So in everything but distances the G.B. [guidebook] is to be depended on. It took us 6 hours to go the 800 yds, though” [MTNJ 2: 165].

Sam’s entries concerning Joe’s pedometer humorously show distances from it were widely inaccurate. His notebook for this date also contain references to get Rev. A.G. Girdlestone’s and Edward Whymper’s books on the Alps and Matterhorn climbing. (See Apr. 25, 1879 entry.) Note: Edward Whymper (1840-1911).