316 LIFE IN THE ALPS. 



carried away by avalanches, and many a brave man 

 lies at the present moment undiscovered in their debris. 

 Some years ago, a famous guide, and favourite com- 

 panion of mine, allowed himself to be persuaded to at- 

 tempt the ascent of a mountain which he considered 

 unsafe, and lost his life in consequence. On the slope of 

 this mountain, with the summit fully in view, a report 

 resembling a pistol shot was heard by the party. It was 

 the cracking of the snow. My friend observed the 

 crack, and saw it widen. Tossing his arms in the air 

 he exclaimed, * We are all lost ! ' The fatal rush fol- 

 lowed in a moment, and my noble guide, with a Russian 

 gentleman to whom he was roped, were dug, dead, out 

 of the snow some days afterwards. The other members 

 of the party escaped. 



I will now describe to you an adventure of my own 

 on one of these avalanches. Five of us, tied together 

 by a rope, were descending a steep slope of ice, covered 

 by a layer of snow, which is always a position of danger. 

 Through inadvertence the snow was detached, an 

 avalanche was formed, and, on it, all five of us were 

 carried down at a furious pace. We were shot over 

 crevasses, and violently tossed about by the inequalities 

 of the surface. The length of the slope down which 

 we rushed in this fashion was about a thousand feet. 

 It was a very grave accident, and within a hair's breadth 

 of being a very calamitous one. A small gold watch, 

 which I then carried, was jerked out of my pocket, 

 and, when we stopped, I found a fragment of the watch- 

 chain hanging around my neck. 



I made an excursion into Italy, returned after an 

 absence of nearly three weeks, and, half jestingly, 

 organised a party to go in search of the watch. The 

 proverbial needle in a bundle of straw seemed hardly 

 more hopeless as an object of discovery ; still, I thought 



