',j^m&*^' 



GOOD going. 



CHAPTER XII 



THE IVORY GATE 



I WAS too excited about the next stage of advance to await 

 the process of tent-pitching, but went straight on up the hill 

 to my left, round whose foot the glacier bent at its termination. 

 It would be impossible to exaggerate the dejection of mind 

 which at this time possessed us all. Obviously the glacier 

 was a very large one. The probability was that we must 

 mount to its head, find a pass over, and descend on the 

 other side, carrying all our things and spending nights in the 

 open in this hideous weather. No one said anything, and 

 I set forth in grimmest humour. The way was over the 

 ice-foot and a torrent too broad to be jumped and too deep 

 in its ice channel to be waded. I turned the end of it where 

 it emerged from its glacier and so reached the foot of my 

 hill, the ascent of which lay up debris poised in a condition 



