488 OLD ALPINE JOTTINGS. 



flag. But already doubt had begun to settle about the 

 final precipice. Walters once remarked, ' We may still 

 find difficulty there.' It was perhaps the pressure of 

 the same thought upon my own mind that caused its 

 utterance to irritate me. So I grimly admonished Wal- 

 ters and we went on. The nearer, however, we came 

 to the summit, the more formidable did the precipice 

 appear. From the point where we had planted our flag- 

 staff a hacked and extremely acute ridge (the Spalla), 

 with ghastly abysses right and left of it, ran straight 

 towards the final cliff'. We sat down upon the ridge 

 and inspected the precipice. Three out of the four men 

 shook their heads and muttered ' Impossible.' Bennen 

 was the only man amongst them who refused from first 

 to last to utter the word. 



" Eesolved not to push them beyond the limits of 

 their own clear judgment, I was equally determined to 

 advance until that judgment should pronounce the risk 

 too great. I therefore pointed to a tooth at some 

 distance from the place where we sat, and asked whether 

 it could be reached without much danger. ' We think 

 so,' was the reply. ' Then let us go there.' We did so, 

 and sat down again. The three men murmured, while 

 Bennen growled like a foiled lion. e We must give it 

 up,' was here repeated. * Not yet,' was my answer. 

 ' You see yonder point quite at the base of the precipice ; 

 do you not think we might reach it ? ' The reply was 

 * Yes.' We moved cautiously along the arete and 

 reached the point aimed at. So savage a spot I had 

 never previously visited, and we sat down there with 

 broken hopes. The thought of retreat was bitter. \\V 

 may have been dazed by our previous efforts and thus 

 rendered less competent than fresh men would have 

 been to front the danger before us. As on other occa- 

 sions, Bennen sought to fix on me the onus of return- 



