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Programming
 Programming
Principles and Practice
Using C++

Bjarne Stroustrup

./.,· Addison-Wesley
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Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products arc claimed as
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Copyright (C' 2009 Pearson Education, Inc.

Stroustrup, Bjame.
Programming principles and practice using C++ I Bjamc Stroustrup.
P· em.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-321-54372·1 (pbk. : alk. paper) I. C++ (Computer program language) I. Title.

QA76.73.C153S82 2008
005.13'3-dc22
2008032595

AU rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. ll1is publication is protected by copyright, and
permission must be obtained from tl1c publisher prior to any prohibited reproduction, storage in a retrieval
system, or transmission in any form or by any means. electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or
likewise. For information regarding pemlissions, write to:

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Fax (617) 671·3447

ISBN-13: 978·0·321·54372·1
ISBN-10: 0-321-54372·6
Text printed in the United States on recycled paper at Courier in Kendallville, Indiana.
Ftrst printing, December 2008
 Contents

Preface xxiii
Chapter 0 Notes to the Reader
0.1 The structure of this book 2
0.1. 1 General approach 3
0.1.2 Drills, exercises, etc. 4
0.1.3 What comes after this book? 5
0.2 A philosophy of teaching and learning 6
0.2.1 The order of topics 9
0.2.2 Programming and programming language 10
0.2.3 Portability 11
0.3 Programming and computer science 12
0.4 Creativity and problem solving 12
0.5 Request for feedback 12
0.6 References 13
0.7 Biographies 14
Bjame Stroustrup 14
Lawrence "Pete" Petersen 15

"
vi CONTENTS

Chapter 1 Computers, People, and Programming 17

1. 1 Introduction 18
1.2 Software 19
1.3 People 21
1.4 Computer science 24
1.5 Computers are everywhere 25
1 .5.1 Screens and no screens 26
1.5.2 Shipping 26
1.5.3 Telecommunications 28
1.5.4 Medicine 30
1.5.5 Information 31
1.5.6 A vertical view 32
1 ..5. 7 So what? 34
1.6 Ideals for progranuners 34

Part I The Basics 41

Chapter 2 Hello, World! 43

2. 1 Programs 44
2.2 T he classic first program 45
2.3 Compilation 47
2.4 Linking 51
2.5 Programming environments 52

Chapter 3 Objects, Types, and Values 59

3 . 1 Input 60
3.2 Variables 62
3.3 Input and type 64
3.4 Operations and operators 66
3 .5 Assignment and initialization 69
3.5.1 An example: delete repeated words 71
3.6 Composite assignment operators 73
3.6.1 An example: count repeated words 73
3.7 Names 74
3.8 Types and objects 77
3.9 Type safety 78
3.9.1 Safe conversions 79
3.9.2 Unsafe conversions 80

Chapter 4 Computation 89
4.1 Computation 90
4.2 Objectives and tools 92
CONTENTS vii

4.3 Expressions 94
4.3.1 Constant expressions 95
4.3.2 Operators 96
4.3.3 Conversions 98
4.4 Statements 99
4.4.1 Selection 101
4.4.2 Iteration 108
4.5 Functions 1 12
4.5.1 Why bother with functions? 114
4.5.2 Function declarations 115
4.6 Vector 1 16
4.6.1 Growing a vector 118
4.6.2 A numeric example 119
4 .6.3 A text example 121
4.7 Language features 123

Chapter 5 Errors 1 31
5. 1 Introduction 132
5.2 Sources of errors 134
5.3 Compile-time errors 134
5.3.1 Syntax errors 135
5.3.2 Type errors 136
.5.3.3 Non-errors 137
5.4 Link-time errors 137
5.5 Run-time errors 138
5.5.1 T he caller deals with errors 140
5.5.2 l11e callee deals with errors 141
5.5.3 Error reporting 143
5.6 Exceptions 144
5.6.1 Bad arguments 145
5.6.2 Range errors 146
5.6.3 Bad input 148
5.6.4 Narrowing errors 151
5.7 Logic errors 152
5.8 Estimation 155
5.9 Debugging 156
5.9.1 Practical debug advice 1S7
5. 10 Pre- and post-conditions 161
5.10.1 Post·conditions 163
5. 1 1 Testing 164
viii CONTENTS

Chapter 6 Writing a Program 1 71

6. 1 A problem 172
6.2 Thinking about the problem 173
6.2 .1 Stages of development 174
6.2.2 Strateg y 174
6.3 Back to the calculator! 176
6.3.1 Frrst attempt 177
6.3.2 Tokens 179
6.3.3 Implementing tokens 181
6.3.4 Using tokens 183
6.3.5 Back to the drawing board 185
6.4 Grammars 186
6.4.1 A detour: English grammar 191
6.4.2 Writing a grammar 192
6.5 Turning a grammar into code 193
6.5.1 Implementing grammar rules 194
6.5.2 Expressions 195
6.5.3 Terms 198
6.5.4 Primary expressions 200
6.6 Trying the first version 20 1
6.7 Trying the second version 206
6.8 Token streams 207
6.8.1 Implementing Token_stream 209
6.8.2 Reading tokens 211
6.8.3 Reading numbers 212
6.9 Program structure 2 13

Chapter 7 Completing a Program 21 9

7. 1 Introduction 220
7.2 Input and output 220
7.3 Error handling 222
7.4 Negative numbers 227
7.5 Remainder: % 228
7.6 Cleaning up the code 23 1
7.6.1 Symbolic constants 231
7.6.2 Use of functions 233
7.6.3 Code layout 234
7.6.4 Commenting 236
7.7 Recovering from errors 238
7.8 Variables 241
7.8.1 Variables and defmitions 241
7.8.2 Introducing names 246
7.8.3 Predefined names 249
7.8.4 Are we there yet? 249
C O N T E N TS ix

Chapter 8 Technicalities: Functions, etc. 253

8.1 Technicalities 254
8.2 Declarations and definitions 255
8.2.1 Kinds of declarations 259
8.2.2 Variable and constant declarations 260
8.2.3 Default initiali7.ation 261
8.3 Header files 261
8.4 Scope 264
8.5 Function call and return 269
8.5.1 Declaring arguments and return type 27 0
8.5.2 Returning a value 271
8.5.3 Pass·by-value 27 3
8.5.4 Pass-by-const-reference 27 3
8.5.5 Pass-by-reference 276
8.5.6 Pass-by-value vs. pass-by-reference 279
8.5.7 Argument checking and conversion 281
8.5.8 Function call implementation 282
8.6 Order of evaluation 287
8.6.1 Expression evaluation 288
8.6.2 Global initialization 288
8.7 Namespaccs 290
8.7.1 using declarations and using directives 291

Chapter 9 Technicalities: Classes, etc. 299

9.1 User·defmed types 300
9.2 Classes and members 301
9.3 Interface and implementation 302
9.4 Evolving a class 304
9.4.1 strud and functions 304
9.4.2 Member functions and constructors 306
9.4.3 Keep details private 308
9.4.4 Defming member functions 309
9.4.5 Referring to the current object 312
9.4.6 Reporting errors 313
9.5 Enumerations 314
9.6 Operator overloading 316
9.7 Class interfaces 318
9.7.1 Argument types 319
9.7.2 Copying 321
9.7.3 Default constructors 322
9.7.4 const member functions 325
9.7.5 Members and "helper functions" 326
9.8 T he Date class 328
X CONTE NTS

Part I I Input and Output 337

Chapter 10 Input and Output Streams 339

10.1 Input and output 340
10.2 T he 110 stream model 341
10.3 Ftles 343
10.4 Opening a ftle 344
10.5 Reading and writing a ftle 346
10.6 110 error handling 348
10.7 Reading a single value 352
10.7.1 Breaking the problem into manageable parts 353
10.7.2 Separating dialog from function 356
10.8 User-defined output operators 357
10.9 User-defined input operators 359
10.10 A standard input loop 359
10.11 Reading a structured ftle 361
10.11.1 In-memory representation 362
10.11.2 Reading structured values 364
10.11.3 Changing representations 368

Chapter 11 Customizing Input and Output 375

11.1 Regularity and irregularity 376
11.2 Output formatting 376
11.2.1 Integer output 37 7
11.2.2 Integer input 379
11.2.3 Floating-point output 380
11.2.4 Precision 382
11.2.5 Fields 383
11.3 Ftle opening and positioning 384
11.3.1 File open modes 385
11.3.2 Binary files 386
11.3.3 Positioning in files 389
11.4 String streams 390
11.5 Line-oriented input 391
11.6 Character classification 392
11.7 Using nonstandard separators 394
11.8 And there is so much more 401
Chapter 12 A Display Model 407
12.1 Why graphics? 408
12.2 A display model 409
12.3 A first example 410
C O N T E N TS xi

12.4 Using a GUI library 414

12.5 Coordinates 415
12.6 Shapes 416
12.7 Using Shape primitives 417
12.7.1 Graphics headers and main 417
12.7.2 An almost blank window 418
12.7.3 Axis 420
12.7.4 Graphing a function 422
12.7.5 Polygons 423
12.7.6 Rectangles 424
12. 7.7 Fill 427
12.7.8 Text 427
12.7.9 Images 429
12.7.10 And much more 430
12.8 Getting this to run 431
12.8.1 Source files 432
Chapter 13 Graphics Classes 437
13.1 Overview of graphics classes 438
13.2 Point and Line 440
13.3 Lines 443
13.4 Color 445
13.5 Line_style 448
13.6 Open_polyline 450
13.7 Closed_polyline 451
13.8 Polygon 453
13.9 Rectangle 455
13.10 Managing unnamed objects 459
13.11 Text 462
13.12 Circle 464
13.13 Ellipse 466
13.14 Marked_polyline 468
13.15 Marks 469
13.16 Mark 470
13.17 Images 472
Chapter 14 Graphics Class Design 479
14.1 Design principles 480
14.1.1 Types 480
14.1.2 Operations 482
14.1.3 Naming 483
14.1.4 Mutability 484
xii CONTENTS

14.2 Shape 485

14.2.1 An abstract class 487
14.2.2 Access control 488
14.2.3 Drawing shapes 491
14.2.4 Copying and mutability 494
14.3 Base and derived classes 496
14.3.1 Object layout 497
14.3.2 Deriving classes and defining virtual functions 499
14.3.3 Overriding 500
14.3.4 Access 501
14.3.5 Pure virtual functions 502
14.4 Benefits of object-oriented progranuning 504
Chapter 1 5 Graphing Functions and Data 509
15.1 Introduction 510
15.2 Graphing simple functions 510
15.3 Function 514
15.3.1 Default arguments 515
15.3.2 More exam ples 517
15.4 Axis 518
15.5 Approximation 521
15.6 Graphing data 526
15.6.1 Reading a file 528
15.6.2 General layout 530
15.6.3 Scaling data 531
15.6.4 Building the graph 532

Chapter 1 6 Graphical User lnteriaces 539

16.1 User interface alternatives 540
16.2 The "Next" button 541
16.3 A simple window 542
16.3.1 A callback function 544
16.3.2 A wait loop 547
16.4 Button and other Widgets 548
16.4.1 Widgets 548
16.4.2 Buttons 549
16.4.3 ln_box and Out_box 550
16.4.4 Menus 551
16.5 An example 552
16.6 Control inversion 556
16.7 Adding a menu 557
16.8 Debugging GUI code 562
CONTENTS xiii

Part Ill Data and Algorithms 567

Chapter I 7 Vector and Free Store 569

17.1 Introduction 570
17.2 vector basics 572
17.3 Memory, addresses , and pointers 574
17.3.1 The sizeof operator 576
17.4 Free store and pointers 577
17.4.1 Free·store allocation 578
17.4.2 Access through pointers 579
17.4.3 Ranges 580
17.4.4 Initialization 582
17.4.5 The null pointer 583
17.4.6 Free-store deallocation 584
17.5 Destructors 586
17.5.1 Generated destructors 588
17.5.2 Destructors and free store 589
17.6 Access to elements 590
17.7 Pointers to class objects 591
17.8 Messing with types: void* and casts 593
17.9 Pointers and references 595
17.9.1 Pointer and reference parameters 596
17.9.2 Pointers, references, and inheritance 598
17.9.3 An example: lists 598
17.9.4 List operations 600
17.9.5 List use 602
17.10 The this pointer 603
17.10.1 More link use 606
Chapter 18 Vectors and Arrays 611
18.1 Introduction 612
18.2 Copying 613
18.2.1 Copy constructors 614
18.2.2 Copy assignments 616
18.2.3 Copy terminology 618
18.3 Essential operations 620
18.3.1 Explicit constructors 621
18.3.2 Debugging constructors and destructors 622
18.4 Access to vector elements 625
18.4.1 Overloading on const 626
xiv CONTENTS

18.5 Arrays 627

18.5.1 Pointers to array elements 628
18.5.2 Pointers and arrays 631
18.5.3 Array initialization 633
18.5.4 Pointer problems 634
18.6 Examples: palindrome 637
18.6.1 Palindromes using string 637
18.6.2 Palindromes using arrays 638
18.6.3 Palindromes using pointers 640

Chapter 1 9 Vector, Templates, and Exceptions 645

19.1 The problems 646
19.2 Changing size 649
19.2.1 Representation 649
19.2.2 reserve and capacity 651
19.2.3 resize 652
19.2.4 push_back 652
19.2.5 Assignment 653
19.2.6 Our vector so far 655
19.3 Templates 656
19.3.1 Types as template parameters 656
19.3.2 Generic programming 659
19.3.3 Containers and inheritance 661
19.3.4 Integers as template parameters 662
19.3.5 Template argument deduction 664
19.3.6 Generalizing vector 665
19.4 Range checking and exceptions 668
19.4.1 An aside: design considerations 670
19.4.2 A confession: macros 671
19.5 Resources and exceptions 672
19.5.1 Potential resource management problems 673
19.5.2 Resource acquisition is initialization 675
19.5.3 Guarantees 676
19.5.4 auto_ptr 678
19.5.5 RAil for vector 678

Chapter 20 Containers and lterators 685

20.1 Storing and processing data 686
20.1.1 Working with data 687
20.1.2 Generalizing code 688
20.2 SIL ideals 690
CONTENTS

20.3 Sequences and iterators 694

20.3.1 Back to the example 696
20.4 Linked lists 698
20.4.1 List operations
699
20.4.2 Iteration
701
20.5 Generalizing vector yet again 703
20.6 An example: a simple text editor 704
20.6.1 Lines 707
20.6.2 Iteration 708
20.7 vector, list, and string 711
20.7.1 insert and erase 713
20.8 Adapting our vector to the STL 715
20.9 Adapting built-in arrays to the STL 718
20.10 Container overview 719
20.10.1 lterator categories 722
Chapter 21 Algorithms and Maps 727
21.1 Standard library algorithms 728
21.2 The simplest algorithm: find() 729
21.2.1 Some generic uses 731
21.3 The general search: find_if() 732
21.4 Function objects 734
21.4.1 An abstract view of function objects 736
21.4.2 Predicates on class members 737
21.5 Numerical algorithms 738
21.5.1 Accumulate 739
21.5.2 Generalizing accumulate() 740
21.5.3 Inner product 742
21.5.4 Generalizing inner_produd() 743
21.6 Associative containers 7 44
21.6.1 Maps 745
21.6.2 map overview 747
21.6.3 Another map example 750
21.6.4 unordered_map 753
21.6.5 Sets 755
21.7 Copying 757
21.7.1 Copy 757
21. 7.2 Stream iterators 758
21.7.3 Using a set to keep order 761
21.7.4 copy_if 761
21.8 Sorting and searching 762
xvi CONTENTS

Part IV Broadening the View 769

Chapter 22 Ideals and History 771

22.1 History, ideals, and professionalism 772
22.1.1 Progranuning language aims and philosophies 772
22.1.2 Progranuning ideals 774
22.1.3 St-yles/paradigms 781
22.2 Programming language history overview 783
22.2.1 T he earliest languages 784
22.2.2 T he roots of modem languages 786
22.2.3 T he Algol family 791
22.2.4 Simula 798
22.2.5 c 800
22.2.6 C++ 804
22.2.7 Today 807
22.2.8 Information sources 808

Chapter 23 Text Manipulation 81 3

23.1 Text 814
23.2 Strings 814
23.3 1/0 streams 819
23.4 Maps 820
23.4.1 Implementation details 826
23.5 A problem 828
23.6 T he idea of regular expressions 830
23.7 Searching with regular expressions 833
23.8 Regular expression syntax 836
23.8.1 Characters and special characters 836
23.8.2 Character classes 837
23.8.3 Repeats 838
23.8.4 Grouping 840
23.8.5 Alternation 840
23.8.6 Character sets and ranges 841
23.8.7 Regular expression errors 842
23.9 Matching with regular expressions 844
23.10 References 849
Chapter 24 Numerics 853
24.1 Introduction 854
24.2 Size, precision, and overflow 854
24.2.1 Numeric limits 858
24.3 Arrays 859
24.4 C-style multidimensional arrays 859
CONTENTS xvii

24.5 The Matrix library 861

24.5.1 Dimensions and access 862
24.5.2 1D Matrix 865
24.5.3 2D Matrix 868
24.5.4 Matrix 110 870
24.5.5 3D Matrix 871
24.6 An example: solving linear equations 872
24.6.1 Classical Gaussian elimination 874
24.6.2 P ivoting 875
24.6.3 Testing 876
24.7 Random numbers 877
24.8 The standard mathematical functions 879
24.9 Complex numbers 880
24.10 References 882
Chapter 25 Embedded Systems Programming 887
25.1 Embedded systems 888
25.2 Basic concepts 891
25.2.1 Predictability 894
25.2.2 Ideals 894
25.2.3 Living with failure 895
25.3 Memory management 897
25.3.1 Free-store problems 898
25.3.2 Alternatives to general free store 901
25.3.3 Pool example 902
25.3.4 Stack example 903
25.4 Addresses, pointers, and arrays 905
25.4.1 Unchecked conversions 905
25.4.2 A problem: dysfunctional interfaces 905
25.4.3 A solution: an interface class 909
25.4.4 Inheritance and containers 912
25.5 Bits, bytes, and words 916
25.5.1 Bits and bit operations 916
25.5.2 bitset 920
25.5.3 Signed and unsigned 922
25.5.4 Bit manipulation 926
25.5.5 Bitfields 928
25.5.6 An example: simple encryption 930
25.6 Coding standards 935
25.6.1 What should a coding standard be? 936
25.6.2 Sample rules 937
25.6.3 Real coding standards 943
xviii CONTENTS

Chapter 26 Testing 949

26.1 What we want 950
26.1.1 Caveat 951
26.2 Proofs 952
26.3 Testing 952
26.3.1 Regression tests 953
26.3.2 Unit tests 954
26.3.3 Algorithms and non-algorithms 961
26.3.4 System tests 969
26.3.5 Testing classes 973
26.3.6 Fmding assumptions that do not hold 976
26.4 Design for testing 978
26.5 Debugging 979
26.6 Performance 979
26.6.1 Trming 981
26.7 References 983
Chapter 27 The C Programming Language 987
27.1 C and C++: siblings 988
27.1.1 C/C++ compatibility 990
27.1.2 C++ features missing from C 991
27.1.3 T he C standard library 993
27.2 Functions 994
27.2.1 No function name overloading 994
27.2.2 Function argument type checking 995
27.2.3 Function defmitions 997
27.2.4 Calling C from C++ and C++ from C 998
27.2.5 Pointers to functions 1000
27.3 Minor language differences 1002
27.3.1 struct tag namespace 1002
27.3.2 Keywords 1003
27.3.3 Defmitions 1004
27.3.4 C-style casts 1006
27.3.5 Conversion of void" 1007
27.3.6 enum 1008
27.3.7 Namespaces 1008
27.4 Free store 1009
27.5 C-style strings 1011
27.5.1 C-style strings and const 1013
27.5.2 Byte operations 1014
27.5.3 An example: strcpyO 1015
27.5.4 A style issue 1015
CONTENTS xix

27.6 Input/output: stdio 1016

27.6.1 Output 1016
27.6.2 Input 1017
27.6.3 Files 1019
27.7 Constants and macros 1020
27.8 Macros 1021
27.8.1 Function-like macros 1022
27.8.2 Syntax macros 1023
27.8.3 Conditional compilation 1024
27.9 An example: intrusive containers 1025

Part V Appendices 1 035

Appendix A Language Summary 1 03 7

A.1 General 1038
A.l.l Terminology 1039
A.l.2 Program start and termination 1039
A.l.3 Comments 1040
A.2 Literals 1041
A.2.1 lnteger literals 1041
A.2.2 Floating-point-literals 1042
A.2.3 Boolean literals 1043
A.2.4 Character literals 1043
A.2.5 String literals 1044
A.2.6 T he pointer literal 1044
A.3 Identifiers 1045
A.3.1 Keywords 1045
A.4 Scope, storage class, and lifetime 1046
A.4.1 Scope 1046
A.4.2 Storage class 1047
A.4.3 Lifetime 1048
A.5 Expressions 1049
A.5.1 User-defined operators 1054
A.5.2 Implicit type conversion 1054
A.5.3 Constant expressions 1056
A.5.4 sizeof 1057
A.5.5 Logical expressions 1057
A.5.6 new and delete 1057
A.5.7 Casts 1058
A.6 Statements 1059
A.7 Declarations 1061
A.7.1 Defmitions 1061
xx CONTENTS

A.8 Built-in types 1062

A.8.1 Pointers 1063
A.8.2 Arrays 1064
A.8.3 References 1065
A.9 Functions 1066
A.9.1 Overload resolution 1067
A.9.2 Default arguments 1068
A.9.3 Unspecified arguments 1068
A.9.4 Linkage specifications 1069
A.10 User-defined types 1069
A.10.1 Operator overloading 1069
A.ll Enumerations 1070
A.12 Classes 1071
A.12.1 Member access 1071
A.12.2 Class member defmitions 1074
A.12.3 Construction, destruction, and copy 1075
A.12.4 Derived classes 1078
A.12.5 Bitfields 1082
A.12.6 Unions 1082
A.13 Templates 1083
A.13.1 Template arguments 1084
A.13.2 Template instantiation 1084
A.13.3 Template member types 1086
A.14 Exceptions 1086
A.15 Namespaces 1088
A.16 Aliases 1089
A.17 Preprocessor directives 1 090
A.17.1 #i nclude 1090
A.17.2 #defi ne 1090

Appendix B Standard Library Summary 1 09.3

B.1 Overview 1094
B.l.l Header files 1095
B.l.2 Namespace std 1098
B.l.3 Description st-yle 1098
B.2 Error handling 1098
B.2.1 Exceptions 1099
B .3 lterators 11 00
B.3.1 lterator model 1101
B.3.2 lterator categories 1103
CONTENTS xxi

B.4 Containers 1105

B.4.1 Overview 1107
B.4.2 Member types 1108
B.4.3 Constructors, destructors, and assignments 1108
B.4.4 lterators 1109
B.4.5 Element access 1109
B.4.6 Stack and queue operations 1110
B.4.7 List operations 1110
B.4.8 Size and capacity 1110
B.4.9 Other operations 1111
B.4.10 Associative container operations 1111
B.5 Algorithms 1112
B.5.1 NorunodifYing sequence algorithms 1113
B.5.2 ModifYing sequence algorithms 1114
B.5.3 Utility algorithms 1116
B.5.4 Sorting and searching 1117
B.S.S Set algorithms 1118
B.5.6 Heaps 1119
B.5.7 Permutations 1120
B.5.8 min and max 1120
B.6 STL utilities 1121
B.6.1 Inserters 1121
B.6.2 Function objects 1122
B.6.3 pair 1123
B.7 110 streams 1124
B.7.1 1/0 streams hierarchy 1126
B.7.2 Error handling 1127
B.7.3 Input operations 1128
B.7.4 Output operations 1128
B.7.5 Formatting 1129
B.7.6 Standard manipulators 1129
B.B String manipulation 1131
B.8.1 Character classification 1131
B.8.2 String 1132
B.8.3 Regular expression matching 1133
B.9 Numerics 1135
B.9.1 Numerical limits 1135
B.9.2 Standard mathematical functions 1137
B.9.3 Complex 1138
B.9.4 valarray 1139
B.9.5 Generalized numerical algorithms 1139
xxii CONTENTS

B.10 C standard library functions 1140

B.10.1 Files 1140
B.10.2 The printf() family 1141
B.10.3 C-style strings 1145
B.10.4 Memory 1146
B.10.5 Date and time 1147
B.10.6 Etc. 1149
B.11 Other libraries 1150
Appendix C Getting Started with Visual Studio 1 1 51
C.1 Getting a program to run 1152
C.2 Installing Visual Studio 1152
C.3 Creating and running a program 1153
C.3.1 Create a new project 1153
C.3.2 Use the std_lib_fa cilities.h header file 1153
C.3.3 Add a C++ source file to the project 1154
C.3.4 Enter your source code 1154
C.3.5 Build an executable program 1154
C.3.6 Execute the program 1155
C.3.7 Save the program 1155
C.4 Later 1155
Appendix D Installing FLTK 1 1 57
0.1 Introduction 1158
0.2 Downloading FLTK 1158
0.3 Installing FLTK 1159
0.4 Using FLTK in Visual Studio 1159
0.5 Testing if it all worked 1160

Appendix E GUI Implementation 1 1 61

E.1 Callback implementation 1162
E.2 Widget implementation 1163
E.3 Window implementation 1164
E.4 Vector_ref 1166
E.5 An example: manipulating Widgets 1167

Glossary 1171
Bibliography 1177
Index 1181
 Preface

"Damn the torpedoes!

Full speed ahead."

-Admiral Farragut

Programming is the art of expressing solutions to problems so that a computer

can execute those solutions. Much of the effort in programming is spent fmding
and refining solutions. Often, a problem is only fully understood through the
process of programming a solution for it.
T his book is for someone who has never programmed before but is willing
to work hard to learn. It helps you understand the principles and acquire the
practical skills of programming using the C++ programming language. My aim
is for you to gain sufficient knowledge and experience to perform simple useful
programming tasks using the best up-to-date techniques. How long will that
take? As part of a first-year university course, you can work through this book in
a semester (assuming that you have a workload of four courses of average diffi­
culty). If you work by yourself, don't expect to spend less time than that (maybe
15 hours a week for 14 weeks).
Three months may seem a long time, but there's a lot to learn and you'll be
writing your first simple programs after about an hour. Also, all learning is grad­
ual: each chapter introduces new useful concepts and illustrates them with exam­
ples inspired by real-world uses. Your ability to express ideas in code - getting a
computer to do what you want it to do - gradually and steadily increases as you
go along. I never say, ..Learn a month's worth of theory and then see if you can
use it."

xxiii
xxiv PREFACE

Why would you want to program? Our civilization runs on software. With·
out understanding software you are reduced to believing in "magic" and will be
locked out of many of the most interesting, profitable, and socially useful techni­
cal fields of work. When I talk about programming, I think of the whole spec­
trum of computer programs from personal computer applications with G Uls
(graphical user interfaces), through engineering calculations and embedded sys­
tems control applications (such as digital cameras, cars, and cell phones), to text
manipulation applications as found in many humanities and business applica­
tions. Like mathematics, programming- when done well- is a valuable intellec­
tual exercise that sharpens our ability to think. However, thanks to feedback
from the computer, programming is more concrete than most forms of math, and
therefore accessible to more people. It is a way to reach out and change the world
- ideally for the better. Finally, programming can be great fun.
W hy C++? You can't learn to program without a progranmung language,
and C++ directly supports the key concepts and techniques used in real-world
software. C++ is one of the most widely used programming languages, found in
an unsurpassed range of application areas. You fmd C++ applications every·
where from the bottom of the oceans to the surface of Mars. C++ is precisely
and comprehensively defmed by a nonproprietary international standard. Qyal·
ity and/or free implementations are available on every kind of computer. Most of
the programming concepts that you will learn using C++ can be used directly in
other languages, such as C, C#, Fortran, andjava. Fmally, I simply like C++ as
a language for writing elegant and efficient code.
This is not the easiest book on beginning programming; it is not meant to
be. I just aim for it to be the easiest book from which you can learn the basics of
real-world programming. That's quite an ambitious goal because much modern
software relies on techniques considered advanced just a few years ago.
My fundamental assumption is that you want to write programs for the use
of others, and to do so responsibly, providing a decent level of system quality:
that is, I assume that you want to achieve a level of professionalism. Consc·
quently, I chose the topics for this book to cover what is needed to get started
with real-world programming. not just what is easy to teach and learn. If you
need a technique to get basic work done right, I describe it. demonstrate concepts
and language facilities needed to support the technique, provide exercises for it,
and expect you to work on those exercises. If you just want to understand toy
programs, you can get along with far less than I present. On the other hand, I
won't waste your time with material of marginal practical importance. If an idea
is explained here, it's because you'll almost certainly need it.
If your desire is to use the work of others without understanding how things
arc done and witl10ut adding significantly to the code yourself, tills book is not
for you. If so, please consider whether you would be better served by another
book and another language. If that is approximately your view of programming,
please also consider from where you got that view and whether it in fact is adc·
quate for your needs. People often underestimate the complexity of program-
P R E F AC E XXV

ming as well as its value. I would hate for you to acquire a dislike for program­
ming because of a mismatch between what you need and the pa11 of the software
reality I describe. There are many parts of the "information technology" world
that do not require knowledge of programming. This book is aimed to serve
those who do want to write or understand nontrivial programs.
Because of its structure and practical aims, this book can also be used as a
second book on programming for someone who already knows a bit of C++ or
for someone who programs in another language and wants to learn C++. If you
fit into one of those categories, I refrain from guessing how long it will take you
to read this book, but I do encourage you to do many of the exercises. This will
help you to counteract the common problem of writing programs in older. famil­
iar styles rather than adoptirlg newer techniques where these are more appropri­
ate. If you have learned C++ in one of the more traditional ways, you'll find
something surprising and useful before you reach Chapter 7. Unless your name
is Stroustrup, what I discuss here is not "your father's C++."
Programming is learned by writirlg programs. In this, programming is similar
to other endeavors with a practical component. You cannot learn to swim, to play
a musical instrument, or to drive a car just from reading a book - you must prac­
tice. Nor can you learn to program without reading and writirlg lots of code. This
book focuses on code examples closely tied to explanatory text and diagrams. You
need those to understand the ideals, concepts, and principles of programming and
to master the language constructs used to express them. That's essential, but by it­
self, it will not give you the practical skills of programming. For that, you need to
do the exercises and get used to the tools for writirlg, compiling, and running pro­
grams. You need to make your own mistakes and learn to correct them. There is
no substitute for writing code. Besides, that's where the fun is!
On the other hand, there is more to programming - much more - than fol·
lowing a few rules and reading the manual. This book is emphatically not fo­
cused on "the syntax of C++." Understanding the fundamental ideals, principles,
and techniques is the essence of a good progranuner. Only well-designed code
has a chance of becoming part of a correct, reliable, and maintainable system.
Also, "the fundamentals" are what last: they will still be essential after today's
languages and tools have evolved or been replaced.
What about computer science, software engineering, information technol·
ogy, etc.? Is that all programming? Of course not! Programming is one of the
fundamental topics that underlie everything in computer-related fields, and it has
a natural place in a balanced course of computer science. I provide brief intro­
ductions to key concepts and techniques of algorithms, data structures, user in­
terfaces, data processing, and software engineering. However, this book is not a
substitute for a thorough and balanced study of those topics.
Code can be beautiful as well as useful. This book is written to help you see
that, to understand what it means for code to be beautiful, and to help you to
master the principles and acquire the practical skills to create such code. Good
luck with programming!
xxvi PRE FACE

A note to students
Of the 1000+ first-year students we have taught so far using drafts of this book at
Texas A&M University, about 60% had programmed before and about 40% had
never seen a line of code in their lives. Most succeeded, so you can do it, too.
You don't have to read this book as part of a course. I assume that the book
will be widely used for self-study. However, whether you work your way through
as part of a course or independently, try to work with others. Programming has
an - unfair - reputation as a lonely activity. Most people work better and learn
faster when they are part of a group with a common aim. Learning together and
discussing problems with friends is not cheating! It is the most efficient - as well
as most pleasant - way of making progress. If nothing else, working with friends
forces you to articulate your ideas, which is just about the most efficient way of
testing your understanding and making sure you remember. You don't actually
have to personally discover the answer to every obscure language and program­
ming environment problem. However, please don't cheat yourself by not doing
the drills and a fair number of exercises (even if no teacher forces you to do
them). Remember: programming is (among other things) a practical skill that
you need to practice to master. If you don't write code (do several exercises for
each chapter), reading this book will be a pointless theoretical exercise.
Most students - especially thoughtful good students - face times when they
wonder whether their hard work is worthwhile. When (not iJ) this happens to you,
take a break, reread t11e preface, and look at Chapter 1 ("Computers, People, and
Programming") and Chapter 22 ("Ideals and History"). There, I try to articulate
what I find exciting about programming and why I consider it a crucial tool for
making a positive contribution to the world. If you wonder about my teaching phi­
losophy and general approach, have a look at Chapter 0 ("Notes to the Reader").
You might find the weight of this book worrying, but it should reassure you
that part of the reason for the heft is that I prefer to repeat an explanation or add an
example rat11er than have you search for t11e one and only explanation. The other
major part of the reason is that the second half of the book is reference material and
"additional material" presented for you to explore only if you are interested in
more information about a specific area of programming, such as embedded sys·
tems programming, text analysis, or numerical computation.
And please don't be too impatient. Learning any major new and valuable
skill takes time and is worth it.

A note to teachers
No. This is not a traditional Computer Science 101 course. It is a book about
how to construct working software. As such, it leaves out much of what a com·
puter science student is traditionally exposed to (Turing completeness, state rna·
P R E FACE xxvii

chines, discrete math, Chomsky grammars, etc.). Even hardware is ignored on

the assumption that students have used computers in v arious ways since kinder­
garten. This book does not even try to mention most important CS topics. It is
about programming (or more generally about how to develop software), and as
such it goes into more detail about fewer topics than many traditional courses. It
tries to do just one thing well, and computer science is not a one-course topic. If
this book/course is used as part of a computer science, computer engineering,
electrical engineering (many of our first students were EE majors). information
science, or whatever program, I expect it to be taught alongside other courses as
part of a well-rounded introduction.
Please read Chapter 0 ("Notes to the Reader") for an explanation of my
teaching philosophy, general approach, etc. Please try to convey those ideas to
your students along the way.

Support
The book's support website, www.stroustrup.com/Programmi ng, contains a va­
riety of materials supporting the teaching and learning of programming using
tlus book. The material is likely to be improved with time, but for starters, you
can find:

Slides for lectures based on the book

An instructor's guide

Header flies and implementations of libraries used in the book

Code for examples in the book
Solutions to selected exercises
Potentially useful links
Errata

Suggestions for improvements are always welcome.

Acknowledgments
I'd especially like to thank my late colleague and co-teacher Lawrence "Pete" Pe­
tersen for encouraging me to tackle the task of teaching beginners long before I'd
otherwise have felt comfortable doing that, and for supplying the practical teach­
ing experience to make the course succeed. W ithout him, the first version of the
course would have been a failure. We worked together on the first versions of the
course for which tills book was designed and together taught it repeatedly, learn­
ing from our experiences, improving the course and the book. My use of "we" in
this book initially meant "Pete and me."
xxviii P R E FA C E

Thanks to the students, teaching assistants, and peer teachers of ENGR 112
at Texas A&M University who directly and indirectly helped us construct this
book, and to Walter Daugherity, who has also taught the course. Also thanks to
Damian Dechev, Tracy Hammond, Arne Tolstrup Madsen, Gabriel Dos Reis,
Nicholas Stroustrup,J. C. van Wmkcl, Greg Versoonder, Ronnie Ward, and Leor
Zolman for constructive comments on drafts of this book. T hanks to Mogens
Hansen for explaining about engine control software. Thanks to AI Aho , Stephen
Edwards, Brian Kernighan, and Daisy Nguyen for helping me hide away from
distractions to get writing done during the summers.
Thanks to the reviewers that Addison-Wesley found for me. T heir comments,
mostly based on teaching either C++ or Computer Science 101 at the college
level, have been invaluable: Richard Enbody, David Gustafson, Ron McCarty,
and K. Narayanaswamy. Also thanks to my editor, Peter Gordon, for many useful
comments and (not least) for his patience. I'm very grateful to the production
team assembled by Addison-Wesley; they added much to the quality of the book:
Julie Grady (proofreader), Chris Keane (compositor), Rob Mauhar (illustrator),
Julie Nahil (production editor), and Barbara Wood (copy editor).
In addition to my own unsystematic code checking, Bashar Anabtawi, Yinan
Fan, and Yuriy Solodkyy checked all code fragments using Microsoft C++ 7.1
(2003) and 8.0 (2005) and Gee 3.4.4.
I would also like to thank Brian Kernighan and Doug Mcilroy for setting a
very high standard for writing about programming, and Dennis Ritchie and Kristen
Nygaard for providing valuable lessons in practical language design.
 t_
,..
0

Notes to the Reader

"When the terrain disagrees with the map,

trust the terrain."

-Swiss army proverb

his chapter is a grab bag of information; it aims to give you

T an idea of what to expect from the rest of the book. Please

skim through it and read what you find interesting. A teacher

will fmd most parts immediately useful. If you are reading this
book without the benefit of a good teacher, please don't try to

read and understand everything in this chapter; just look at "The

structure of this book" and the first part of the "A philosophy of

teaching and learning" sections. You may want to return and

reread this chapter once you feel comfortable writing and execut­

ing small programs.

2 CHA P T E R 0 • N O T E S TO T H E R E A D E R

0.1 The structure of this book 0.3 Programming and computer science
0.1.1 General approach 0.4 Creativity and problem solving
0.1.2 Drills, exercises, etc.
0.1.3 What comes after this bookJ 0.5 Request for feedback
0.2 A philosophy of teaching and 0.6 References
learning 0.7 Biographies
0.2.1 The order of topics
0.2.2 Programming and programming
language
0.2.3 Portability

0.1 The structure of this book

lbis book consists of four parts and a collection of appendices:
Part I, "'llu: Basics," presents the fundamental concepts and techniques of
programming together with the C++ language and library facilities
needed to get started writing code. lbis includes the type system, arith­
metic operations, control structures, error handling, and the design, im­
plementation, and use of functions and user-defined types.
Part II, "Input and Output," describes how to get numeric and text data
from the keyboard and from ftles, and how to produce corresponding
output to the screen and to ftles. Then, it shows how to present numeric
data, text, and geometric shapes as graphical output, and how to get
input into a program from a graphical user interface (G Ul).
Part Ill, "Data and Algoritlmu," focuses on the C++ standard library's con­
tainers and algorithms framework (the STL, standard template library).
It shows how containers (such as vector, list, and map ) are implemented
(using pointers, arrays, dynamic memory, exceptions, and templates)
and used. It also demonstrates the design and use of standard library al­
gorithms (such as sort, find, and inner_product ) .
Part Jv, "Broadening the View," offers a perspective on programming
through a discussion of ideals and history, through examples (such as
matrix computation, text manipulation, testing, and embedded systems
programming), and through a brief description of the C language.
Appendices provide useful information that doesn't fit into a tutorial presen­
tation, such as surveys of C++ language and standard library facilities,
and descriptions of how to get started with an integrated development en­
vironment (IDE) and a graphical user interface (G Ul) library.
0.1 THE STRUCTURE OF THIS BOOK 3

Unfortunately. the world of programming doesn't really fall into four cleanly sep­
arated parts. l11ereforc, the "parts'' of this book provide only a coarse classifica­
tion of topics. We consider it a useful classification (obviously, or we wouldn't
have used it). but reality has a way of escaping neat classifications. For example,
we need to usc input operations far sooner than we can give a thorough explana­
tion of C++ standard 110 streams (input/output streams). W here the set of topics
needed to present an idea conflicts with the overall classification, we explain the
minimum needed for a good presentation, rather than just referring to the com­
plete explanation elsewhere. Rigid classifications work much better for manuals
than for tutorials.
The order of topics is determined by programming techniques. rather than
programming language features; see §0.2. For a presentation organized around
language features, see Appendix A.
To ease review and to help you if you miss a key point during a first reading fj
where you have yet to discover which kind of information is crucial, we place
three kinds of "alert markers'' in the margin:

Blue: concepts and techniques (this paragraph is an example of that)

Green: advice
Red: warning

0.1.1 General approach

In this book, we address you directly. That is simpler and clearer than the con­
ventional "professional'' indirect form of address, as found in most scientific pa­
pers. By "you" we mean ''you, the reader," and by "we" we refer either to
''ourselves. the author and teachers," or to you and us working together through
a problem, as we might have done had we been in the same room.
This book is designed to be read chapter by chapter from the beginning to I 1
tl1e end. Often, you '11 want to go back to look at something a second or a third U
time. In fact, that's the only sensible approach, as you'll always dash past some
details that you don't yet see the point in. In such cases, you'll eventually go back
again. However, despite the index and the cross-references. this is not a book that
you can open on any page and start reading with any expectation of success.
Each section and each chapter assume understanding of what came before.
Each chapter is a reasonably self-contained unit, meant to be read in "one sit­
ting" (logically, if not always feasible on a student's tight schedule). That's one
major criterion for separating the text into chapters. Other criteria include that a
chapter is a suitable unit for drills and exercises and that each chapter presents
some specific concept, idea, or technique. This plurality of criteria has left a few
chapters uncomfortably long, so please don't take "in one sitting'' too literally. In
particular, once you have thought about the review questions. done the drill, and
4 CHAPTER 0 • N O T E S TO T H E R E A D E R

worked on a few exercises, you'll often find that you have to go back to reread a
few sections and that several days have gone by. We have clustered the chapters
into "parts" focused on a major topic. such as input/output. These parts make
good units of review.
Common praise for a textbook is "It answered all my questions just as I
thought of them!" That's an ideal for minor teclmical questions, and early read­
ers have observed the phenomenon with this book. However, that cannot be the
whole ideal. We raise questions that a novice would probably not think of. We
aim to ask and answer questions that you need to consider to write quality soft­
ware for the use of others. Learning to ask the right (often hard) questions is an
essential part of learning to think as a programmer. Asking only the easy and ob­
vious questions would make you feel good, but it wouldn't help make you a pro­
grammer.
We try to respect your intelligence and to be considerate about your tin1e. In
our presentation, we aim for professionalism rather than cuteness, and we'd
rather understate a point than hype it. We try not to exaggerate the importance
of a progranlming technique or a language feature, but please don't underesti­
mate a simple statement like "This is often useful." If we quietly emphasize tl1at
something is important, we mean that you'll sooner or later waste days if you
don't master it. Our use of humor is more linllted than we would have preferred.
but experience shows that people's ideas of what is fmmy differ dramatically and
that a failed attempt at humor can be confusing.
We do not pretend tl1at our ideas or the tools offered are perfect. No tool, li­
brary, language, or technique is "the solution" to all of the many challenges fac­
ing a programmer. At best, it can help you to develop and express your solution.
We try hard to avoid "white lies" ; that is, we refrain from oversin1plified explana­
tions that are clear and easy to understand, but not true in the context of real lan­
guages and real problems. On the other hand. this book is not a reference; for
more precise and complete descriptions of C++. see Bjame Stroustrup, 77U' C++
Programmu1g La11guage, Special Edition (Addison-Wesley, 2000) , and the ISO C++
standard.

0.1 . 2 Dril ls, exercises, etc.

Programming is not just an intellectual activity, so writing programs is necessary
to master progranlming skills. We provide two levels of programming practice:

Drills: A drill is a very simple exercise devised to develop practical, al­

most mechanical skills. A drill usually consists of a sequence of modifica­
tions of a single program. You should do every drill. A drill is not asking
for deep understanding, cleverness, or initiative. We consider the drills
part of the basic fabric of the book. If you haven't done the drills, you
have not ''done" the book.
0. 1 THE STRU CTU RE OF THIS BOOK 5

Exercises: Some exercises are trivial and others are very hard, but most
arc intended to leave some scope for initiative and imagination. If you
are serious, you'll do quite a few exercises. At least do enough to know
which are difficult for you. Then do a few more of those. l11at's how
you'll learn the most. The exercises are meant to be manageable without
exceptional cleverness, rather than to be tricky puzzles. However, we
hope that we have provided exercises that are hard enough to challenge
anybody and enough exercises to exhaust even the best student's avail­
able time. We do not expect you to do them all, but feel free to try.

In addition, we recommend that you (every student) take part in a small project
(and more if time allows for it) . A project is intended to produce a complete useful
program. Ideally, a project is done by a small group of people (e.g., three people)
working together for about a month while working through the chapters in Part
III. Most people find the projects the most fun and what ties everything together.
Some people like to put the book aside and try some examples before read­
ing to the end of a chapter; others prefer to read ahead to the end before trying to
get code to run. To support readers with the former preference, we provide sim­
ple suggestions for practical work labeled "Try this:" at natural breaks in the
text. A Try this is generally in the nature of a drill focused narrowly on the topic
that precedes it. If you pass a Try this without trying - maybe because you are
not near a computer or you fmd the text riveting - do return to it when you do
the chapter drill; a Try this either complements the chapter drill or is a part of it.
At the end of each chapter you'll find a set of review questions . They are in­
tended to point you to the key ideas explained in the chapter. One way to look at
the review questions is as a complement to the exercises : the exercises focus on the
in , whereas the review questions try to help you ar­
practical aspects of progranlffig
ticulate the ideas and concepts. In that, they resemble good interview questions.
The "Terms" section at the end of each chapter presents the basic vocabulary
of programming and of C++. If you want to understand what people say about
programming topics and to articulate your own ideas, you should know what
each means.
Learning involves repetition. Our ideal is to make every important point at
least twice and to reinforce it with exercises .

0.1 .3 What comes after this book?

At the end of this book, will you be an expert at progranlffiing and at C++? Of • ,

course not! When done well, programming is a subtle, deep, and highly skilled U
art building on a variety of technical skills. You should no more expect to be an
expert at programming in four months than you should expect to be an expert in
biology, in math, in a natural language (such as Chinese, English, or Danish), or
at playing the violin in four months - or in half a year, or a year. What you
6 CHAPTER 0 • N OT E S TO T H E R E A D E R

should hope for, and what you can expect if you approach this book seriously, is
to have a really good start that allows you to write relatively simple useful pro­
grams, to be able to read more complex programs, and to have a good concep­
tual and practical background for further work.
The best follow-up to this initial course is to work on a real project develop­
ing code to be used by someone else. Mter that, or (even better) in parallel with a
real project, read either a professional-level general textbook (such as Stroustrup,
The C++ Programming Language) , a more specialized book relating to the needs of
your project (such as Q5 for GUI, or ACE for distributed programming) , or a
textbook focusing on a particular aspect of C++ (such as Koenig and Moo, Accel­
erated C++; Sutter's Exceptional C++; or Gamma et al., Design Patterns) . For com­
plete references, see §0.6 or the Bibliography section at the back of the book.
Eventually, you should learn another programming language. We don't con­
sider it possible to be a professional in the realm of software - even if you are not
primarily a programmer - without knowing more than one language.

0.2 A philosophy of teaching and learning

What are we trying to help you learn? And how are we approaching the process
of teaching? We try to present the minimal concepts, techniques, and tools for
you to do effective practical programs, including
Program organization
Debugging and testing
Class design
Computation
Function and algorithm design
Graphics (two-dimensional only)
Graphical user interfaces (G Uls)
• Text manipulation
Regular expression matching
Ftles and stream input and output (1/0)
Memory management
Scientifidnumerical/engineering calculations
Design and programming ideals
•
The C++ standard library
Software development strategies
C-language progranml.ing tedmiques
 Another Random Document on
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 CHAPTER V.
FURTHER ANECDOTES OF GUIDES.
Endurance is absolutely necessary in a guide undertaking first-class
ascents. It is simply astounding how much fatigue a guide will go
through without any symptom of giving in. One one occasion,
Alexander Burgener, having returned to Zermatt after fourteen hours’
climbing, left with me the same evening, and put in another forty-
three hours’ exertion (relieved by one halt of two hours on an
exposed ledge while waiting for the moon), almost “without turning
a hair.” The porter, too, had participated in both ascents, and though
certainly fatigued on our reaching Zermatt, was still far from
prostrate.
I have known Martin Schocher go up Piz Bernina five times in one
week, taking an “off day” on Piz Palü on the other two days; and
amongst the long excursions which I have made with guides who,
on their return, declared that they felt quite fresh, may be
mentioned the Dent du Géant, twenty-three hours; Aiguille du Midi
(winter), twenty hours; Col d’Argentine (winter), twenty hours;
Finsteraarhorn, up and down by Agassiz-joch (following an ascent of
the Schreckhorn the day before), twenty-three hours.
It is when a party encounters bad weather or is benighted in an
exposed situation that the endurance of a guide is most put to the
test. Some years ago a party consisting of Mr. Howard Knox and a
German gentleman, with Peter Dangl of Sulden and Martin Schocher
of Pontresina, were benighted on the arête of Piz Scerscen. The
German was almost unconscious from cold and fatigue, and Mr.
Knox, too, was worn-out from want of sleep. The guides during the
entire night never ceased rubbing and attending to the German, and
from time to time Schocher took Mr. Knox in his arms and allowed
him three or four minutes’ sleep, which refreshed him much more
than would be expected from the short time during which it was safe
for him to indulge in it. At daybreak, Schocher led the party in
magnificent style down an entirely new route to the Scerscen glacier,
and brought them all safe and sound home to Pontresina the same
afternoon. The final splendid piece of guiding of Jean-Antoine Carrel
in 1890, when, after two days’ confinement by bad weather in the
upper hut on the south side of the Matterhorn, he, after twenty
hours’ fearful toil, got his party safely out of all their difficulties, and
then laid down and died, is one of the most pathetic incidents in
Alpine history.
Referring to this, Mr. Whymper wrote in the Alpine Journal, “It
cannot be doubted that Carrel, enfeebled though he was, could have
saved himself had he given his attention to self-preservation. He
took a nobler course, and, accepting his responsibility, devoted his
whole soul to the welfare of his comrades, until, utterly exhausted,
he fell staggering on the snow. He was already dying; life was
flickering, yet the brave spirit said, ‘It is nothing.’ They placed him in
the rear to ease his work; he was no longer able even to support
himself; he dropped to the ground, and in a few minutes expired.”
An extraordinary case of endurance came to my notice a short time
ago, when turning over the leaves of some old numbers of the
Alpine Journal. It is not connected with guides, and thus is perhaps
out of place here. Still, as my object in this little work is rather to
interest my readers than to aim at a careful classification of subjects,
I shall quote the account for their benefit.
“The same number of the same work (i.e., the Bulletino Trimestrale,
Nos. x. and xi.) relates an Alpine misadventure so extraordinary as to
deserve notice, and so incredible as hardly to seem worthy of it. But
it is equally out of the question to suppose that the organ of the
Italian Alpine Club is itself guilty of a hoax, or that it could be
hoaxed in a matter verified by the signature of three Italian
gentlemen of station, by a public subscription, and by an official
document. This premised, we give the following narrative, greatly
condensed from the Italian.
“A party of young men, who had been employed on the Fell railway
over the Mont Cenis, took their way home, about the middle of
October 1866, over the Col du Collarin to the Piedmontese valley of
Ala. Near the top, still on the Savoy side, one of them, named
Angelo Castagneri, slipped, apparently on the edge of the
bergschrund, and disappeared. His companions, instead of returning
for help to the village of Averolles, little more than an hour distant,
seem to have been possessed with the notion that a man down in a
glacier was past help, and crossed the col to Balme, the first village
where Castagneri’s parents lived. They took it coolly, for it was a
week before anybody went to look for him, and then the father,
descending by help of a ladder, found him lying on the wet earth
beside a clot of blood, which had flowed from a wound in his head,
and still alive. It took nine or ten hours to get him home, using the
ladder as a litter, and many days elapsed before he was seen by a
medical man.” The account goes on to say that it was nine months
before he was taken to Turin and placed in a hospital there, where
his legs, from which he had lost his feet from frost-bite and
subsequent mortification, were healed, apparently without
amputation. Castagneri says that he had no recollection of anything
from the time of his fall until aroused by his father’s voice and touch.
In that case he lay senseless between eight and nine days, and
probably owed his life to his insensibility.
The subject of the manifold kindnesses and acts of unselfishness
shown by guides, both to their employers and also to each other, is
so wide a one that I can only touch on it in a most superficial
manner. I well remember, some years ago, hearing of a very kind act
of Melchior Anderegg’s. The party had ascended the Dent d’Heréns,
and, in returning, Ulrich Almer was struck and badly hurt by a stone.
It was impossible to get him down to Zermatt that night, and several
hours had to be spent, while waiting for daylight, sitting on the
rocks. It was extremely cold, and Melchior took off his coat and
wrapped the wounded man in it, remaining all night in his shirt-
sleeves.
In my work “The High Alps in Winter,” I have related how my guides,
while I was asleep in the Cabane d’Orny (near the Orny Glacier),
took off their coats and covered me with them, so that I might not
feel cold, while they sat up all night brewing hot tea, and vying with
each other in stories of chamois hunts.
Experience every good guide must have. Here is an anecdote
showing how one member of the profession acquired it. This guide,
now well known and in the first rank, began his career with two
Germans as his victims. The party were bound for, I believe, the
Cima di Jazzi, and when the ice of the Gorner Glacier gave place to
snow, the moment came for putting on the rope. The guide felt
greatly puzzled; and he was slow of thought. Meanwhile the two
gentlemen, as ignorant of mountain-craft as their guardian, stood by
and watched the cord being slowly uncoiled. At last the guide took a
sudden resolution, and making a loop at each end of the rope, he
slipped it round the necks of his two charges, and taking the cord in
the centre, held it in his hand, having just enough native wit not to
tie it round his own neck! In this frightfully dangerous condition they
remained during the entire ascent. When returning, another party
was seen approaching. The guide halted on finding that it was led by
a friend of his. He took him aside and said, “Tell me, how ought
people to be roped? Have I not done it correctly?” The other guide
replied, with inward merriment, “Oh, yes, it’s quite right!”
Whereupon his friend exclaimed, “And yet I assure you the
gentlemen have sworn at me all day!” So much for that pleasing
operation known as “buying experience.”
The guide who has had the greatest amount of experience in the
Alps is, I think, Christian Almer, if by experience we mean making a
large number of different ascents and excursions. The Oberlanders
travel out of their own district more than any other guides; next to
them probably the Saas and St. Nicholas men; then some of the
Chamonix guides (though not many). Peter Dangl of Sulden, Tyrol,
and several of the Valtournanche men are also to be met with en
voyage, the former very frequently.
In closing the subject of guides, I will only add that I trust these
little details of my experience of them and that of others may have
helped some to better realise what a splendid body of men they are,
and how much may be learnt in knowing them well, and in the
constant intercourse with them which every climber enjoys. I have
tried to show that the upper grades of the profession are not a
number of self-seeking, ignorant, unprincipled peasants, who regard
all travellers as their lawful prey, but a set of courageous, noble-
minded men, often conspicuous in intellectual qualities, and in many
ways unique as a class.
 CHAPTER VI.
ALP LIFE.
Do you know, my readers, what an alp is? Perhaps the question
seems trivial to you, and you feel inclined to reply indignantly, “Of
course!” Well, perhaps you are right; but still I am going to describe
an alp, for it is also very possible that you are wrong. As to what an
alp is not, I will begin by stating most emphatically that it is not a
mountain, that it is not snow-covered in summer, and that it has
nothing whatever to do with those incidents of nature spoken of in
guide-books as “the Alps.” An alp is written with a small a—this is
one distinction. It is a pasture tenanted in summer by cows, goats,
and huge black pigs, and young men and maidens to look after the
same, consequently it is not snow-covered except in winter, and as it
supplies the animals with beautiful and nourishing grass, it presents
a very different aspect to the rocky and ice-clad sides of the Alps
(with a large A).
During the long winter months, the cows, which are of such value to
the Swiss, are kept in hot, often stuffy, stables in the villages, and
only taken out every day for water. It is a familiar sight to winter
visitors in the Alps to meet these animals in the village street,
plunging and galloping about in the enjoyment of a few breaths of
fresh air on their way to drink at one of the many troughs with
which even the smallest of Alpine hamlets is so liberally supplied.
Towards the beginning of May, the cows are taken from their stables
and driven to the lower alps. These alps constitute a great source of
wealth to the country. Many owners of large herds of cattle have as
many as three, situated at different altitudes on the mountain-side.
It is to the lowest that the cows first go, and by the time its rich
pasturage has been fully enjoyed and considerably diminished, the
snow will have melted from the slopes above, and thither the herd
pursues its way. By the middle of June, or later, the highest alp is
gained, and there the animals remain till the early autumn
approaches. Then they descend, halting for a month or so at the
intermediate stations, till the end of October sees them once more
established in the valley for the winter.
The day on which the cows depart for the alps is fêted with great
rejoicings in most Swiss villages, and doubtless in olden days it must
have occurred earlier in the season than is now the case, for the 1st
March is still kept as a festival dedicated to the turning out of the
cows into the meadows, and if the valley was clear of snow by
March 1st, the lower alps must surely have been habitable by April.
An interesting account, by Herr Bavier, of the 1st March rejoicings,
appeared in the St. Moritz Post for March 10, 1888, and I think that
my readers will wish me to reprint some of it. Herr Bavier, under the
heading of “Chalanda Mars,” writes:—
“What is the Chalanda Mars? almost all my readers will ask. Here it
is the children’s greatest fête, and in every village, no matter how
small, the Chalanda Mars is celebrated with as much splendour as
possible. For hundreds of years it has been the custom for heads of
families to contribute a certain sum, which is put at the disposal of
the schoolmaster, and with it he procures a supply of cream, cakes,
sweets, and other things dear to the youthful palate. On March 1st
(Chalanda, viz., ‘beginning’), the principal scholars of the village
school go about the streets, ringing big cow-bells, cracking whips,
and singing—

‘Chalanda Mars, Chaland Avrigl,

Lasché las vaschas our d’nuigl,
Cha l’erva crescha
E la naiv svanescha,’

which means,
 Beginning of March, beginning of April,
Bring forth the cows from their stables,
For the grass is growing,
And the snow is going.

“During their procession through the village, the youngsters collect

chestnuts, or any other dainty offered by the listeners to their music,
and on the Sunday following these treasures are placed on a
gorgeous sort of ‘buffet,’ and all the village children, even the babies,
are invited to help themselves. After supper, a dance helps to further
enliven matters, and to make the little folk look forward impatiently
to next year’s ‘Chalanda Mars.’”
The herd, consisting perhaps of animals belonging to twenty or more
different persons, on its departure for the mountains, is headed by
the largest and finest of the cows. She is decorated with the best
and deepest-toned bell, and at every march she never fails to place
herself in front of all her companions, and when, through old age or
sickness, she loses her superiority, and her bell is transferred to the
neck of another animal, she sometimes abandons herself to such
lowness of spirits as seriously to impair her health.
Tschudi relates that on one occasion, when the herds were preparing
for the descent from the upper alp of Bilters, he noticed a furious
combat between two cows, and on his inquiring the reason, the
herdsmen told him that one of the cows had borne the great bell
during the ascent, but that it had been transferred from her neck to
that of a still finer animal during their sojourn on the alp. The first
cow, having heard the tones of her old bell, had come from a great
distance, and on her arrival had immediately shown fight, in revenge
for the loss of her former privilege.
After the leader of the troop follow those of next importance, and it
is said that every time the purchase of a new animal adds to the
herd, the last arrival engages each of the cows in turn in battle, and
the result of the fights determines her position amongst her
companions. The bells carried by the cows are sometimes so large
as to measure a foot in diameter, and cost in some instances as
much as eighty or a hundred francs.
The cows are accompanied to their summer quarters either by a girl,
who is known as a Sennerin, or by a cowherd, or Senner. It is often
imagined that these peasants enjoy a life of romantic idleness, lying
on the emerald-green turf, surrounded by snow-clad glittering peaks,
and making the cliffs re-echo to their jodels or the “Ranz des
Vaches.”
I may here add, that, according to Dr. Forbes, the name of the “Ranz
des Vaches” is derived from the “rang” or range in which the cows
stand to be milked, the “Ranz des Vaches” being usually sung by the
peasants on their departure for the alps. However, in a work by H.
Szadrowsky entitled “Music and the Musical Instruments of the
Dwellers in the Alps” (1868), the derivation of Ranz is said to be
from ranner, to shout (Swiss-Romansch), and the “Ranz des Vaches”
from Reihen or Reigen, a song. In truth, the existence of the
peasants who inhabit these alps is by no means a lazy one. Up
before break of day—I have often seen them astir by 3 A.M.—they
must let their cows out of the shelter in which they have passed the
night. If any of the animals are ill, they must be attended to. Twice
daily they must be milked, and cheese-making is an important and
arduous portion of the day’s routine.
In the Engadine, and, in general, all over the Grisons, the alp huts
are built of wood or solid stone, and are comfortable and
commodious, and good shelter is provided for the cattle. In many
parts of Valais, on the contrary, the rough stone huts of the
cowherds, so low that an upright position cannot, in some cases, be
maintained, are but miserable, hastily-built hovels, the walls
consisting of stones piled one on another, regardless of intervening
gaps, and a roof of rocky slabs covering the wretched structure. The
cows are entirely unprovided with shelter on many such alps, and
often when passing through mountain pastures at night, I have been
startled by suddenly stumbling over a warm mass slumbering in the
long dewy grass.
The highest pastures are usually to be found at about 7500 feet, but
at the Riffel above Zermatt, cows are to be seen grazing above 8000
feet, and on the south slopes of the Italian side of the Alps they go
still higher. In several parts of Switzerland, the cows, in order to gain
their summer quarters, must cross the ice of the glaciers, and at
Montanvert, above Chamonix, they may be seen in June and
October traversing the Mer de Glace.
Two distinct kinds of cattle are found in Switzerland. The one is to be
seen in the districts between the Lake of Constance and the east
boundary of Valais, while the west is occupied by a different sort.
The former is easily distinguishable, being of a uniform brown,
sometimes dark in shade, sometimes light, while the other is white
with black or yellow patches, sometimes being entirely red or black,
with only a white mark on the forehead. The first of these two
varieties, it has been noticed, is heavier or lighter, according as it
inhabits the lowlands or the higher valleys.
The heaviest and finest of these animals are to be found in the
Canton of Schweiz, and attain a weight of twenty to twenty-five
quintaux. Of the latter sort, the best specimens inhabit Bulle,
Romont, and Eastern Switzerland in general. These animals are the
heaviest of all.
For further information on “Alp Life,” I refer my readers to Tschudi’s
“Monde des Alpes.”
 CHAPTER VII.
THE CHAMOIS.
Amongst the animals met with in the Alps, there is none so
interesting to the traveller as the chamois. The reason for this is not
far to seek, for the animal is sufficiently rare to excite both the
curiosity and the imagination, while its pursuit is known to be so
difficult and often dangerous, that it has frequently been described
as “mountaineering without a rope.” Thus a glamour of romance is
thrown over the whole subject.
Chamois-shooting in Switzerland is only allowed during one month of
the year, September. It is seldom indulged in, in this country, by
foreigners, as there is a great deal of difficulty in obtaining a license.
Indeed, it can only be had after the stranger has taken out a
Niederlassung (which gives many of the rights of naturalisation
without loss of those of the free-born Briton), and this is both a
troublesome and a tedious process, besides entailing a residence of
some time in Switzerland.
There are several other plans, however, by which the ardent
sportsman works his will. One of these is simply to go and shoot,
and, disregarding all monetary considerations, pay a heavy fine for
each chamois secured. At what period, however, the Swiss
authorities would pronounce the offender against their laws
incorrigible, and introduce him to the interior of one of their prisons,
I do not know.
A third course, and the one usually followed, is for the foreigner to
accompany a native who is armed with a license and a gun for his
own use. I will not affirm that in the excitement of the chase the
latter does not sometimes change hands.
Hampered by a rifle, and minus the help of the trusty rope and ice-
axe, chamois-hunting calls for exceptional activity and endurance.
Most Englishmen who go in for the sport make their headquarters in
the Italian Alps, where the Government regulations are less stringent
than in this country.
The Engadine contains large herds of chamois, and one can see
thirty or forty almost every day in summer feeding on the slopes of
Piz Tschierva, opposite the Roseg restaurant. This is no doubt
because that part of the Engadine has been strictly preserved for
some years.
For the benefit of such of my readers as have never seen a chamois,
I extract the following description of one from Mr. Baillie Grohman’s
brightly written little work, “Tyrol and the Tyrolese.”
“Somewhat larger than a roedeer, a chamois weighs, when full
grown, from forty to seventy pounds. Its colour, in summer of a
dusky yellowish brown, changes in autumn to a much darker hue,
while in winter it is all but black. The hair on the forehead and that
which overhangs the hoofs, remains tawny brown throughout the
year, while the hair growing along the backbone is in winter dark
brown and of prodigious length; it furnishes the much-prized
‘Gamsbart,’ literally ‘beard of the chamois,’ with tufts of which the
hunters love to adorn their hats. The build of the animal exhibits in
its construction a wonderful blending of strength and agility. The
power of its muscles is rivalled by the extraordinary facility of
balancing the body, of instantly finding, as it were, the centre of
gravity.”
Most districts of the Alps have their famous chamois-hunters; but,
according to Tschudi, the most celebrated of all was Jean-Marie
Colani of Pontresina. It is said that he kept about 200 chamois, half-
tamed, on the hills near his home. Each year he shot sixty males or
so, calculating on about the same number of young ones being born
every season. He would not tolerate any strangers in the district,
and the Tyrolese especially suffered much at his hands. It was
popularly related at Pontresina that he had a room in his châlet
decorated with foreign hunting implements, which he had taken
from those whom he had killed, the number of his victims being
estimated at thirty. Of course this was a gross exaggeration, and A.
Cadonau, an old chamois-shooter of Bergün, asserted that Colani
only killed one Tyrolese hunter whom he found on Swiss ground
near Piz Ot; but he tells that one day he met Colani unexpectedly,
and the latter took deliberate aim at him, only lowering his weapon
when he recognised his friend.
It is said that on one occasion Colani killed three chamois grouped
together with one shot, and many anecdotes are told of him, most
of which are by no means to his credit. From the time he was twenty
years of age till his death, Colani killed 2600 chamois. This figure
has never been reached by any one else. Colani’s death in 1837 was
caused by over-exertion, he having undertaken for a bet to mow a
piece of land in the same time that it would take a couple of the best
Tyrolese mowers to accomplish a like amount.
The Grisons have had other famous chasseurs, amongst whom may
be mentioned J. Rüdi of Pontresina and Jacob Spinas of Tinzen. The
latter began to hunt at twelve years old, and, in a career of twenty-
two years, shot 600 chamois, besides securing every season forty to
fifty hares, about sixty marmots, some hundred or more partridges,
a dozen foxes or so, and in a single day catching trout to a weight of
fifteen to twenty pounds.
The largest herd of chamois Spinas ever saw numbered from sixty-
five to sixty-eight head. Spinas contested that he was only surpassed
as a hunter by one other man in the canton, namely, B. Cathomen of
Brigels.
Other noted chamois-hunters, inhabiting Val Bregaglia and the
neighbouring valleys, are Giacomo Scarlazzi of Promontogno, who
has shot as many as five chamois in a day and seventeen in a week,
and Pietro Soldini of Stampa. The latter, up to 1887, had killed 1200
to 1300 chamois, of which he shot forty-nine in one autumn. J.
Saratz of Pontresina was also a famous chasseur, and the three
brothers Sutter of Bergün must not be forgotten. Amongst them
they shot 1700 head, in addition to which Mathew Sutter has killed a
bear, a læmmergeier, and often in a day eight to ten ptarmigan. He
has only seen three lynx, but has never shot one.
October 1852 was a fatal time for chamois-hunters, three of whom,
including the famous guide Hans Lauener, were killed during that
month. The saying that more chamois-hunters are killed while
engaged in their favourite sport than die a natural death has,
unfortunately, a good deal of truth in it. Sometimes the chasseur,
overcome by fatigue, falls asleep in some cold and exposed spot,
never to wake again. Sometimes he is mortally wounded by falling
stones, or struck by lightning in a thunderstorm. Often he is killed by
avalanches, and if, when on difficult ground far from home, he is
overtaken by a thick fog, his position becomes most perilous. He
may wander for hours without nearing the valley; he may slip down
a precipice concealed by the mist; he may give in to utter
exhaustion. The diminution of the chamois within the last fifteen or
twenty years also makes his task much harder, and he may spend
days without being able to approach, or perhaps even without
seeing one.
A pretty anecdote of a chamois is told by Dr. John Forbes in his work
“A Physician’s Holiday.” He says that in the year 1843 the proprietor
of a large flock of goats on the Great Scheideck had rendered a
chamois so tame, by training it almost from its birth, as to get it to
mingle in the herd with its more civilised cousins, and to come and
go with them to and from the mountains with perfect docility and
seeming content. Like most of its companions, it was decorated with
a bell suspended round its neck. After following for three successive
seasons this domestic course, it all at once forgot the lessons it had
learnt, and lost its character as a member of civilised society for
ever. One fine day, when higher up the mountains than was
customary for the flock, it suddenly heard the bleat of its brethren
on the cliffs above, and pricking up its ears, off it started, and
speedily vanished amid the rocks, whence the magical sounds had
come. Never from that hour was the tame chamois seen on the
slopes of the Scheideck, but its bell was often heard by the hunters
ringing among the wild solitudes of the Wetterhorn.
It is only when the chamois has lost, through disease, that amount
of intelligence with which it is gifted by nature that it will abandon its
mountain home and seek the haunts of man. Johann Scheuchzer of
Zurich tells us that in the year 1699, only four years before the date
of his journey, a chamois suddenly descended into the valley of
Engelberg in Unterwalden, and not only mixed with the horses and
cows, but could not even be driven from them by stones. It was at
length shot, and on its body being examined after death by one of
the fathers of the neighbouring monastery, a sac containing watery
serum and sandy particles was found pressing on the brain. Some
ten years ago a chamois appeared in the streets of Bonneville
(Haute-Savoie), and walked calmly in at the open door of a
restaurant, where it was captured. The Chamonix hunters say that
there is a certain herb which, on being eaten by chamois, maddens
them, and that they consequently wander down into the valley.
On September 1, 1887, a chamois was seen by an Englishman who
was driving on the high-road at Frauenkirch, near Davos-Platz. The
coachman also saw it, and the distance from the road to the right
bank of the Landwasser, where it was first perceived, was so short
that an excellent view of the animal was obtainable. It swam
vigorously across the river, and disappeared in the forest beyond.
Perhaps as September 1st is the date on which chamois-hunting
commences, it had been driven down the valley by terror.
Chamois take freely to the water, and several instances are on
record of their having been enabled by swimming to elude their
pursuers.
Many hunters look upon one particular animal in the district they
inhabit as a pet, and refrain from shooting it themselves, or allowing
it to be shot. These favoured beasts are sometimes so tame that
they linger round the alps where the chasseurs live, and allow them
to approach to within a distance of a few feet.
In common with many other animals, chamois dearly love salt, and
in certain districts where the rocks are flavoured with a saline taste,
the animals come in flocks to lick them. The hunters sometimes put
down salt for the benefit of the chamois, refraining, however, from
shooting them when they come to eat it, as they might thus frighten
them away from that part of the country.
There are several ways of hunting chamois. Sometimes they are
driven, either as in the great preserves of the Duke of Coburg near
the Achensee, that of the Archduke Victor near Kufstein, and others
in Tyrol and Germany (it is needless to add that there are no private
preserves in Switzerland), or in a more sportsmanlike manner, when
three or four hunters drive the chamois down from their pastures at
dawn, and, later on, remounting the slopes, drive them up again,
often imitating the barking of a dog, towards their retreat. Here
several chasseurs are lying hidden, and as soon as the animals arrive
within range, they shoot. It is, of course, often difficult to drive the
chamois in the right direction, but the knowledge of their haunts
displayed by the hunters is frequently most astonishing in its
exactitude.
The most usual way of hunting chamois is to stalk them, and I think
there can be no question as to the infinite superiority of the sport
thus obtained. I would here add, in the words of a sportsman, that
“the wholesale slaughter of an animal that Nature herself has placed
in the most sublime recesses of her creation, and endowed with
such noble qualities and wonderful organisation, is a proceeding
which a true sportsman ought not to countenance.”
It is supposed that there are as many as 2000 head of chamois in
the Grisons alone. The oldest chamois ever shot was believed to
have reached the age of forty years. It was killed in the Engadine in
1857, but its age is probably much exaggerated. As for the heaviest
chamois, one weighing 125 Swiss pounds was shot on the Tschingel
(Bernese Oberland). I can find no record of a chamois of greater
weight than this.
It has been estimated, from measurements made on Monte Rose,
that a chamois can jump crevasses sixteen to eighteen Swiss feet in
width, while it can jump down twenty-four feet or so.
Every year the number of chamois shot in the Grisons exceeds 500,
and in December a corresponding number of skins are offered for
sale at St. Andrew’s market at Chur.
It has often been a matter for speculation as to whether the chamois
will ever become extinct in this country. I cannot think it likely that it
will. It is carefully preserved in the closed districts, and as the wild
valleys of the Alps are more and more opened up, poaching will
become more difficult and the animals consequently freer from
molestation. The more, too, that habitations increase in the higher
valleys, the wilder will the chamois probably become, and the more
difficult, therefore, to shoot; so that I do not think that we need fear
the dying out of the race.
 CHAPTER VIII.
ON GLACIERS.
The Alpine Journal for November 1868 concludes with these words,
“If anybody thinks that Alpine science has been already too
thoroughly drilled into the public mind, we would refer him to a
recent ridiculous letter which the editor of the Times did not think it
beneath him to publish, and in which the writer said that a ‘puff of
smoke,’ as it appeared on the mountain, ‘raised the cry that the
Glacier des Pélérins had burst, carrying with it part of the moraine
which kept it within bounds!’”
If any one had told the climbing world in those days that in 1891 the
ordinary traveller would be nearly as ignorant of the behaviour of
glaciers as was the Times correspondent referred to above, I fancy
the prophet would have been received with derision. Such, however,
I know to be the case; and only last year, while walking up Piz
Languard with a party of friends, I was asked if the medial moraine
of the Morteratsch glacier was a carriage road or only a bridle-path!
This is my excuse for entering at some length into a subject which
has been already written about in so able a manner and in much
detail by Professors Tyndall, Forbes, Heim, Forel, and others.
Now, let me tell you something about those great icy masses which,
under the name of glaciers, thrust their cold forms far below the
region of perpetual snow, and in some cases, as, for instance, that
of the Glacier des Bossons at Chamonix, even push down their
frozen waves amongst the meadows and forests in the very trough
of the valley.
I am constantly asked by those who are only acquainted with the
lower end of the glaciers how it is that they are continually and
rapidly melting at their lower extremity, and yet their general
features are but slightly altered from year to year. The obvious
answer is, that they are constantly replenished from above, and that
glacier ice has formerly been snow, which, for a considerable period,
has been subjected to enormous pressure. The common illustration
of a snow-ball, squeezed in the hand till it becomes hard and icy,
explains this transition of snow to ice in a manner easily understood
by all, and if we remember that the warm hand, in addition to the
pressure, also tends to produce the above result, we have a parallel
to the heat of the sun acting on the cold, dry snow of the upper
regions. Now, every one knows that when it rains in the valleys it
snows on the mountains, and that even during the heat of summer
it very seldom rains above a height of 11,000 to 12,000 feet. In
consequence of this, the accumulation of snow on the higher peaks
is very great, and the pressure which is exerted by its weight is
enormous.
As a natural result, a portion of the ice-caps or snow-beds gravitates
downwards, and where the upper snows are of great extent and the
shape of the channel suitable, a large glacier is found, as is the case
near Pontresina, where the huge Morteratsch glacier pursues its
lengthy course, fed by the snows of the Bernina and Bellavista. The
first to speak clearly and positively on the since well-proven theory
that a glacier moves like a river was Monseigneur Rendu, a native of
Savoy. “Between the Mer de Glace and a river there is a resemblance
so complete, that it is impossible to find in the latter a circumstance
which does not exist in the former,” he writes, and Professor Tyndall
sets forth in an admirable manner the reason why a glacier moves
more quickly in the centre than at the sides. I cannot do better than
quote his own words.
“A cork, when cast upon a stream near its centre, will move more
quickly than when thrown near the side, for the progress of the
stream is retarded by its banks. As you and your guide stood
together on the solid waves of that Amazon of ice, you were borne
resistlessly along. You saw the boulders perched upon their frozen
pedestals; these were the spoils of distant hills, quarried from
summits far away, and floated to lower levels like timber blocks upon
the Rhone. As you advanced towards the centre you were carried
down the valley with an ever-augmenting velocity. You felt it not—he
felt it not—still you were borne down with a velocity which, if
continued, would amount to 1000 feet a year.”
Many glaciers descend in curves, pursuing a sinuous course towards
the valley, and the convex side of the curve must, of course, hurry
up very considerably in order to keep pace with the rest. Now, as the
ice thus moves faster on the one side than on the other, the result is
that the convex side is rent and torn asunder, and splits up into
those cracks and chasms known as crevasses. Consequently, a
glacier which flows downwards in a straight direction and at a gentle
incline presents a comparatively unbroken surface, while a glacier
which descends in leaps and bounds over a steep bed and dashes
round sharp corners will exhibit all the features of an impassable ice-
fall.
Striking examples of the former class of glaciers are the Aletsch
glacier, the upper portion of the Gorner glacier, the Miage glacier, the
Roseg glacier, the Pasterzen glacier, &c., and of the latter the Bies
glacier, the Brenva glacier, the Géant glacier, the Pers glacier, and
many others. The exact point at which the snow of the heights
passes into glacier ice has never been definitely determined, but
each winter’s snowfall is distinctly traceable by a band of differently-
hued snow wherever above the snow-line a glacier is much split up.
High glacier-clad mountains are covered with what is known as névé
—névé being the finely crystallised snow of the upper regions, which
remains unmelted all the summer. The glacier ice which is formed by
pressure of this névé is quite different to the ice which results from
freezing water, and is found to consist of round crystals, varying in
size from that of a hen’s egg to that of the head of a pin. Any
observant person will have noticed the ice usually supplied at Swiss
tables-d’hôtes, and the curious way in which it behaves as compared
with ordinary ice; for while the latter melts uniformly from the
outside, the former is honeycombed with air and water, and after a
time its peculiar structure, composed of numerous particles, is
noticeable. These crystals or particles are known as glacier granules
or glacier corn.
The whiteness of a glacier, as compared with the blackness of a
frozen lake, is a feature which I have known to puzzle many. It is
simply owing to the presence of this glacier corn, which allows a
great quantity of air to permeate the whole mass of the ice. The
beautiful blue veined or ribboned structure, first observed by Forbes
on the Unter-Aar glacier, is due to the absence of air-bubbles, and
represents bruises in the ice where, by melting, strain, and pressure,
certain parts have had the air driven out.
We will now notice several of the peculiarities which are conspicuous
on the surface of one of these great rivers of ice. As we walk up
from, say, the Morteratsch restaurant towards the glacier of that
name, we must cross part of the stony and earthy mass known as
the terminal moraine. Now the subject of moraines is a very large
one, so much so, that we shall probably devote nearly the whole of
a future chapter to it. For the present, we will merely walk over it,
and get on to the very dirty ice of which the snout or lower end of
the Morteratsch glacier is composed. As one of the party hews out
the steps by which you mount, you have time to observe the ice
crystals or glacier corn which we have already spoken of.
Before you have gone far on the level surface of the glacier, you will
see several boulders which are resting on ice pedestals supported at
some height. These are called glacier tables, and result from the
presence of a block of stone which protects the ice beneath it from
the heat of the sun, thus preventing it from melting. In
consequence, while the glacier all round has been dissolving and
sinking, the ice under these boulders has but slightly melted, and
gradually a pillar of sometimes as much as four feet or more in
height is formed under each erratic block. The sun is, of course, able
to reach these ice pedestals more freely on the south than on the
north side, and thus we observe that the boulder is not balanced
evenly on the top, but always inclines downwards towards the south
side; it thus has been known to render valuable aid to the
mountaineer who has lost his way in a fog or in the dark without a
compass on a glacier, as he can, by observing the position of a
glacier table, easily inform himself of the direction in which he is
walking. Small stones have a different effect, as they sink into the
ice, leaving little holes. You will also probably notice a line of sand-
covered mounds, about four or five feet high, and culminating in a
sharp point or ridge. Scrape off a little of the sand and earth, and
you will find that the mound is composed of ice, which looks quite
black where you have uncovered it. The reason for the existence of
these dirt cones is obvious; the sand has protected the ice, which
has thus remained unmelted, and being heaped up thickly in the
centre and thinning off towards the sides, has thus taken its sharply-
pointed shape.
Continuing our walk up the glacier, we hear, gradually becoming
louder and louder as we approach, the roar of falling water, and
soon we reach a point where a bright, dancing stream leaps down a
shaft in the ice and is lost to sight. Be careful how you approach this
deep hole (or, as it is called, moulin), for one false step on your part
would take you down far beyond all human aid. Various persons
have endeavoured to gauge the thickness of a glacier at a given
point by taking soundings down a moulin, and Agassiz found no
bottom at 260 metres in one on the Unteraar glacier; he estimated
the thickness of the ice to be 1509 feet near the Abschwung. On Piz
Roseg, where the hanging glaciers end in abrupt ice-cliffs, a
thickness of 250 feet has been observed. You are now at the foot of
the lower ice-fall of the Morteratsch glacier. We will not go farther
to-day, and we have already learnt how it is that the tottering ice
masses and grim crevasses are formed. We know that the glacier on
which we are standing is slowly moving downwards (by its weight,
and by sliding in its bed, especially facilitated by its granular
structure) at, roughly, the same rate as the hour-hand of an ordinary
watch. It has been estimated—I believe by Mr. Tuckett—that a grain
of snow would take 450 years to travel from the summit of the
Jungfrau to the termination of the Aletsch glacier. A most painful
illustration of the rate of motion of glaciers was furnished by the
descent in the ice of the Glacier des Bossons of the bodies of Dr.
Hamel’s three guides, who lost their lives on Mont Blanc in 1820,
being carried down the Ancien Passage in an avalanche, and swept
into the bergschrund at its base. On August 15, 1861, Ambrose
Simond, a Chamonix guide, who was accompanying a party of
tourists to the lower extremity of the Bossons glacier, noticed in one
of the crevasses torn pieces of clothes and some human bones. He
brushed off the sand with which they were covered, and brought
them to Chamonix. Five men at once started on hearing what he
had found, and they discovered other remains at a distance of some
twelve or fifteen metres lower down. From that day, the glacier
continued to give back the remains of what it had swallowed up
forty-one years before, and what was found was beyond doubt the
bodies and belongings of Dr. Hamel’s guides. All that they had
carried with them, the scientific instruments, knapsacks, gloves, &c.,
were gradually set free from their icy fetters. A gauze veil came out
untorn and not much faded; and the knapsack of Pierre Carrier
contained a leg of mutton perfectly recognisable. More remarkable
than anything else was the condition of a cork, which was not only
still stained by the wine, but also possessed a perceptible odour of
the contents of the bottle in which it had been fixed. (“Le Mont
Blanc,” by Charles Durier.)
But it is time to descend, and in the next chapter I will make a few
observations on moraines and the power of a glacier in planing down
or removing whatever object it meets with; this power, as a matter
of fact, being very much more limited than is popularly supposed.
 CHAPTER IX.
ON MORAINES.
Now, in order clearly to understand the formation of moraines, I
must first say a little more about the movement of glaciers and the
débris which they bring down.
I have sometimes heard unthinking persons remark that the snowfall
of each winter must tend to increase the height of snow-peaks. This
observation shows that such people entirely overlook the four great
factors in the maintenance of a uniform height on mountain
summits, namely, melting, evaporation (which, in the dry air of the
heights, is a very powerful factor in causing the disappearance of
snow), glaciers, and avalanches. It is to the two latter of these that
we must look for the construction of moraines, in which work they
are very largely aided by two other factors, frost and rain. The
glacier, starting in its infant purity from some white, unsullied peak,
loses, before many years have past, its spotless character. The
wintry frosts, gathering into iron bonds the streams which trickle
down the mountain-sides, expand the water in freezing, and shatter
the rocks with a force that the most solid cliffs cannot resist. Broken
and weathered fragments are washed down from the slopes on
every fall of rain, and dropping on to the once unspotted bosom of
the glacier, swell the burden which is gradually laid upon it with
advancing years. Spring after spring, furious avalanches rush down,
laden with earth and stones, which they fling recklessly upon the
now begrimed edges of the icy stream. The winds and storms, too,
contribute their share of dust and sand, and as the glacier still flows
on, shrunken in size and laden with heaps of earth and rocks, at
length it lays itself to rest, a mass of dirty ice and stones, in the
valley towards which it has been ceaselessly progressing.
The glacier of the Alps which comes farthest down into the lower
regions is the Grindelwald glacier, which descended to 1080 metres
above sea-level in 1870, while that which presents the largest
surface is the Aar glacier, and the longest is the Aletsch. Heim gives
an estimate, in his valuable work on glaciers, of the number of
glaciers existing in Europe, dividing them into those of the first and
second order.
The list is as follows:—
1st Order. 2nd Order. Total.
Switzerland 138 333 471
Austria 71 391 462
France 25 119 144
Italy 15 63 78
—— —— ———
249 906 1,155
Glaciers have regular periods during which they advance or retreat.
Many persons who visited the Mer de Glace some twenty or more
years ago remember that it then came down nearly to the level of
the valley of Chamonix, while the Rhone glacier reached almost to
where the lower hotel now stands. In old days, too, the two arms of
the Fee glacier united below the Gletscher alp, so that the cows had
to pass across the ice in order to reach their summer pastures. A
period of advance is always preceded for some years by a noticeable
swelling of the upper portions of glaciers; this, of course, is quite
what one would expect. A succession of cold, rainy summers and
exceptionally snowy winters eventually causes an increase in the
glaciers, and the reverse has naturally the contrary effect.
You have learnt that a moraine is a mixture of earth and stones
which is borne down by a glacier, and you know how all this débris
has accumulated on the ice, chiefly by means of the shattering
power of frost on the rocks. Now let us notice the position which
moraines assume on a glacier like, say, the Morteratsch. As I have
said, persons unaccustomed to the mountain world, and thus unable
to estimate the relative sizes of objects seen at a distance, have
been known to inquire, when ascending Piz Languard, if the dark
streak down the centre of the Morteratsch glacier is a path. They are
astonished to learn that it is about fifty feet or more broad, and
perhaps twenty feet high in the centre. It is, in fact, neither more
nor less than a moraine, and belongs to that class known as medial
moraines. Each glacier has a moraine on either side of it, and when
two glaciers unite, their lateral moraines join and form a medial
moraine. The moraine at the end of a glacier (terminal moraine) is
almost entirely formed of the earth and stones which fall off the end
of a glacier, and not, as used to be supposed, by any pushing or
scooping of the base of the glacier.
In fact, the erosive power of a glacier is infinitesimal as compared
with that of water. Dr. Heim cites various examples to show that a
glacier leaves undisturbed much of what it finds in its way, and he
says that the Forno glacier, which some years ago greatly retreated
and left blocks of itself covered with débris behind, rapidly advanced
once more in 1884 over the old accumulations at its base, but did
not disturb them in any way. Many of our readers will have noticed
the many glacier-worn rocks in the Engadine valley; they are
especially abundant near Maloja.
Now it will be seen, on near examination, that these rocks have
been gently polished by the ice constantly slipping over them, and
that they have not those deep smooth hollows which are formed by
rushing, eddying water.
The great glaciers which, in the glacier period, flowed down from
Mont Blanc to the Jura have left ample proof of their origin in the
huge blocks of granite which were transported by the ice, and now
lie stranded on the hill-sides at a distance of sixty miles and more
from the rocks out of which they were quarried. The size of some of
these erratic blocks is very remarkable. The biggest boulder in the
Alps is in Val Masino (one of the Italian valleys near the Bernina
district). Its dimensions, according to the late Mr. Ball, are—length,
250 feet; breadth, 120 feet; height, 140 feet; in fact, as Mr. Douglas
Freshfield remarks, “as tall as an average church tower, and large
enough to fill up many a London square.” Many of my readers will
remember the great serpentine boulder in front of the little inn at
Maltmark, which was no doubt brought down by the glacier which
must have originally filled the basin of the lake. The ancient
moraines near Aosta are also remarkable evidences of the glacial
epoch.
One word here as to the shape of a moraine. It rises, as you know,
to a ridge in the centre, and slopes down like the roof of a house at
the sides. This is because the heaping together of the earth and
stones in the middle has protected the ice from melting as rapidly
there as towards the sides; in fact, the same cause brings about the
shape of moraines as applies in that of sand cones.
I will close this chapter by a brief explanation of an appearance
which many of my readers who have visited Montanvert may have
noticed, especially on cloudy, dull days and after sunset. I refer to
dirt bands, which are especially noticeable on the Mer de Glace. I
observed them under peculiarly favourable circumstances from the
summit of the Grandes Jorasses, when a cloudy sky showed them up
most distinctly. They are often seen from the Montanvert hotel,
however, and take the form of dark bands across the glacier, the
convex side of the curve of each being in the direction of the motion
of the ice. These dirt bands are very simple in their origin, which is
as follows:—At the foot of an ice-fall the tottering blocks reunite and
freeze together, presenting a tolerably smooth surface with gentle
undulations. The glacier streams sweep dust and small débris into
the depressions, which gradually form themselves across the glacier.
This dust finally freezes into the ice, and lower down presents the
appearance of the famed dirt bands.
Sometimes a photograph will give dirt bands with great distinctness;
they are very clearly seen in a view of the Mer de Glace from the
Aiguilles Rouge, taken by the late Mr. W. F. Donkin.
 CHAPTER X.
ON AVALANCHES.
Those who during the summer of 1888 visited Switzerland had very
unusual opportunities for studying both the appearance and the
effect of avalanches. It is, indeed, rare to see a huge mass of winter
snow lying in the Rosegthal in mid-summer, and the remains of
numerous other avalanches were that year still unmelted in many
high-lying Alpine valleys. I wonder if the crowds who, out of
curiosity, visited the snowy débris, knew anything of the various
causes which formed the avalanche and launched it down the hill-
side, or if they could tell to what class of avalanche it belonged, and
at what time of year it is likely to have fallen.
Avalanches vary immensely in their characteristics, and can be
classed under three headings according to their peculiarities. The
different kinds of avalanches are as follows:—Staublawinen, or dust
avalanches; Grundlawinen, or compact avalanches; Eislawinen, or
ice avalanches. Dust avalanches are the most to be feared of any, for
while the others fall according to certain well-known rules and at
particular times of the year, the dust avalanches are erratic in their
movements, uncertain in the periods at which they come down, and
most terrible in their results. Dust avalanches consist of cold, dry,
powdery snow, which falling on a slope of ice or hard snow, or even
on a steep slope of grass, slides off on the slightest provocation.
Often, if a bit of overhanging snow falls on the upper part of the hill-
side, or if an animal disturbs the newly fallen mass, or perhaps if a
gust of wind suddenly detaches it from the surface on which it rests,
the whole accumulation begins to move down, gently and quietly at
first, and then with ever-increasing power and a deafening roar,
uprooting trees, carrying away châlets and whatever happens to be
in its course, and leaping like a huge stream of spray-covered water
from precipice to precipice, till it makes one final bound across the
valley, the impetus of its course frequently carrying it up for some
distance on the opposite slope. The wind which accompanies such
an avalanche is far more powerful than a raging hurricane, and it
often levels trees and buildings, forces in windows and doors, and
carries heavy objects to an incredible distance. One of the most
remarkable performances I know of in connection with dust
avalanches took place in the Engadine, when the wind preceding a
huge mass of snow, rushing down the hill-side, blew five telegraph
posts flat down, although the snow itself did not come within 500
feet of them.
“Constant readers” of the St. Moritz Post will remember that in an
account of the avalanches of the winter of 1887-88 which appeared
in the first number of the summer issue, it was stated that, on the
occasion of the fall of two great avalanches into Saas-Grund, most of
the windows and doors in the village were forced in from the
pressure of air. While dealing with the subject of dust avalanches
and the effects of the powerful wind which accompanies them, I
may mention that Tschudi relates in his “Monde des Alpes” that such
avalanches will sweep châlets and trees from the ground, and carry
them, whirling like straws in a storm, through the air, dropping them
at a distance of 400 feet. Châlets, filled with hay, and quite
uninjured, have been found, it is said, some two hundred yards and
more from the termination of the débris of an avalanche, the wind
preceding which had blown them right across the valley.
In the year 1689 an enormous avalanche, which in the annals of the
Grisons is spoken of as the most fearful one on record in the canton,
came down from the heights above the village of Saas, in the
Prättigau, and demolished 150 houses. Amongst the débris, which
had been swept by the avalanche to a considerable distance, a
rescue party discovered a baby lying safe and sound in his cradle,
while six eggs were found uninjured in a basket close at hand.
Another sort of avalanche which can be roughly classed under the
above heading is formed by the sudden descent of an overhanging