LOSING THE TRACK 239 



knives. More than once our guide lost the track, 

 when again the axe had to be appHed. At noon 

 I caught a gHmpse of a broad semicircle of crags 

 towering above vast open corries at the head of the 

 valley, together with numerous gullies filled up with 

 snow, running down steeply from the foot of the 

 rocks. 



It was not before two p.m. that we halted, after a 

 twenty-mile march, on a nice flat lawn by the stream, 

 and pitched our camp in the wood, within a few miles 

 of our ground, further advance with the pack-horses 

 being impossible. Leaving the caravan men to put 

 up the tents, I started off with the General for a 

 preliminary survey of the country, and with a view 

 to investigate the more likely ground for the next day. 

 Ascendino- a lateral ravine, it took us at least two 

 hours to reach the first patches of snow, both on 

 account of the low situation of the camp (500 feet 

 above sea-level) and greater elevation of the snow- 

 line in comparison with the interior of the peninsula. 

 The mountain scenery here bore a striking resemblance 

 to that of the Ganal range, and the volcanic compo- 

 sition of the pinnacles and rocks appeared to me 

 identical ; they differed only in shape. We proceeded 

 to the top of a pass between the crags and inspected 

 a huge stretch of snowfields beyond. Several fresh 



