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not think I can manage it.’ Fortunately I felt perfectly fresh 
and not in the least tired. I recommended Mohn to climb the 
other peak (then unascended.) He said, ‘ Aut Caesar, aut nihil.’ 
I then left them, and passed under a snow cornice which over- 
hung the northern precipice, and reached the rocky wall in a 
very short time. Now, farewell to snow, that great aider of 
mountain ascents, and 500 feet of rock. I found a small 
buttress projecting from the face of the rock; it formed a 
corner. Up there I must go, or nowhere else; of choice there 
was none. But still, when viewed closely, it looked more 
hopeful. I soon found that the rocks were firm; the ledges, 
though so tiny, were secure; the strata of the rock inclined the 
right way, downward, from the out face towards the centre of the 
mountain. Better than all, I was quite cool, and in perfect 
training. Still, no trifling must be done here. After being 
hidden by the snow cornice from my friends, I came into 
view again, and was eagerly watched by my well-wishers. I 
soon got into a difficulty in a corner, and but for a ledge no 
broader than my hand, from which I had to knock away the ice, 
should thus early have been defeated, as without the aid of 
this foothold the mountain would indeed be inaccessible. My 
friends saw me at this place, and vainly tried to call me back, 
but with the aid of my well tried ice-axe, I surmounted the 
difficulty. I shall avoid going into details about this and other 
places, as if I were to attempt to describe them I should 
undoubtedly be accused either of exaggeration or perhaps of 
foolhardiness by persons unaccustomed to Alpine work, when at 
the same time I might be guilty of neither. Suffice it to say 
that it was an exceedingly tough piece of work. I had to use 
my hands the whole distance, and my ice-axe often. Three 
times I was all but stopped, but this was my especial and much 
longed-for mountain. I reached, in sight of Mohn, what from 
afar we had judged to be the top. I raised a cheer, which was 
renewed from below, when I found that there was a mdge—a 
knife-edge affair—perhaps sixty yards long, and that the highest 
point was evidently that at the further end. There are three 
peaklets and a notch in the ridge, which latter again almost 
stopped me. For the first time, I had to trust to an over- 
hanging and rather loose rocky ledge. I tried it well, then 
hauled myself up to terra firma, and in a few strides, a little 
above half an hour after leaving my friends, I found myself on 
the unsullied crown of the peerless Skagastélstind, a rocky table 
four feet by three, elevated five or six feet above the southern 
end of the ridge. As to the view, which was perfectly free from 
clouds, it would be futile for me to attempt to describe it at 
length, excepting the more immediate surroundings, except 
to say that on every hand some of the wildest crags, aiguilles, 
