196 ON THE FKONTIER. 



I had fixed upon and where we were, and impress it well on 

 my mind, for I knew so soon as I should begin to wind 

 about among the foot-hills and lower ranges of mountains 

 before me the distant summit-line. would be hidden from 

 my view. 



" We made very good headway until nearly 2 o'clock in 

 the afternoon, but the depth of the snow had by that time 

 greatly increased, and the animals were beginning to fag ; 

 so I thought it advisable to give them a short rest, and chose 

 a spot for that purpose where some tall bunch-grass, stick- 

 ing up through the snow, would also give them something to 

 eat. An hour was all the time I thought I could afford, so 

 we were soon pushing on again. We shortly got into a 

 regular jumble of small rugged mountains and transverse 

 valleys, ravines, and gulches ; seldom able to see half-a-mile 

 ahead, and obliged to make sudden and unexpected turns 

 in directions totally different from the one in which we 

 wished to proceed. It was most unsatisfactory and provok- 

 ing travelling. Only by stopping on the top of each rise 

 as we crossed it, and turning round and contemplating the 

 country below, could we come to any definite conclusion 

 as to our whereabouts, or decide on the best way to proceed. 

 But that we were gradually getting very high up was plainly 

 perceivable on looking down in the direction we had come 

 from. 



" Knowing that there would be a bright moon, that it and 

 the reflection from the snow would afford sufficient light to 

 permit of travelling after nightfall, I determined to push 

 on for a couple of hours after the sun should have set ; but 

 about 4 o'clock it commenced to freeze very hard, and in 



