242 THE EASTERN SLEDGE JOURNEY 



present be seen. I suppose it will sound like a tall 

 story, but it is a fact, nevertheless, that to our eyes the 

 surface appeared to be horizontal all the time. Snow, 

 horizon and sky all ran together in a white chaos, in 

 which all lines of demarcation were obliterated. 



Fortunately nothing came of our expectation that the 

 scamper would have a frightful ending in some insidious 

 abyss. It was stopped quite naturally by an opposing 

 slope, which appeared to be as steep as the one we had 

 just slid down. If the pace had been rather too rapid 

 before, there was now no ground of complaint on that 

 score. Step by step we crawled up to the top of the 

 ridge ; but the ground was carefully surveyed before we 

 proceeded farther. 



In the course of the afternoon we groped our way 

 forward over a whole series of ridges and intervening 

 depressions. Although nothing could be seen, it was 

 obvious enough that our surroundings were now of 

 an entirely different character from anything we had 

 previously been accustomed to. The two mountain 

 summits had disappeared in the fleecy mist, but the 

 increasing unevenness of the ground showed that we 

 were approaching them. JNIean while I considered it 

 inadvisable to come to close quarters with them so long 

 as we were unable to use our eyes, and, remembering 

 what happens when the blind leads the blind, we 

 camped. For the first time during the trip I had a 

 touch of snow -blindness that afternoon. This trouble- 



