186 THE FOREST AND THE FIELD. 



Our cavern proved impervious to the weather, 

 and circulation once more restored, things began 

 to assume a different aspect. Our people regained 

 their spirits, and the Doctor, taking out his baro- 

 metric apparatus, boiled a panikin of water, and 

 made out that we had attained an altitude of nine- 

 teen thousand one hundred and sixty feet, or nearly 

 seven thousand feet higher than the terminal 

 moraine at the Cow's Mouth. We now held a 

 consultation as to our future proceedings, and it 

 was resolved to return to camp, for although the 

 storm was over, the hollow murmuring of thunder 

 was still heard faintly rumbling among the distant 

 hills, and the sky still looked dark and threatening. 

 It was with extreme reluctance that we turned our 

 faces from the head of the glacier, and commenced 

 a retrograde track, for our object was not yet 

 accomplished, and there is always a strangely 

 mysterious fascination and inexplicable charm in 

 perilous enterprises that lures the adventurer 

 onward, making him feel indifferent or reckless of 

 consequences. As circumstances turned out, how- 

 ever, it was very lucky that we did not attempt to 



