532 Notes on Sport and Travel x 



they lay rendered it impossible for anything heavier- 

 footed than a gcinse to pass them. We must up the 

 cliff; we had no choice. 



Now, to begin, it was no easy thing to get at the 

 cliff at all. That confounded gap between the snow 

 and the rock was bad enough to get across from 

 above ; but to jump up from the sloping snow slap 

 against the face of the rock was ten times worse. 

 However, Joseph, having uncoiled a few yards of 

 line from his waist and made it fast to the gemse, 

 tightened his belt, and took the crack gallantly. 

 Lighting on a narrow ledge, with his nose almost 

 touching the rock, to which he stuck like a limpet, 

 he steadied himself, turned round, and seated himself 

 with his legs dangling over the chasm. Now came 

 my turn. Having thrown the end of the line to 

 Joseph, after vainly looking for a promising ledge to 

 land on, I yielded to his entreaties, and swung 

 myself right at him. We grasped each other pretty 

 tight, you may be assured, gentle reader ; and after 

 swaying for a moment or two over the abyss, I 

 climbed up him, and getting my feet on his shoulders, 

 I managed to draw myself up to a ledge a few feet 

 higher. Now came my turn to turn, and a most 

 unpleasant piece of gymnastics it was. The ledge 

 was not an inch too broad, and the rock below only 

 rough enough to scratch against, not to give any firm 

 foothold. Hov/ever, I at last got my back against 

 the rock pretty firmly ; and Joseph, who had dragged 

 the gemse up from the snow, threw me the end of 



