54 SIR VICTOR BROOKE CHAP. 



consisted of two precipices, divided by a kind of slop- 

 ing plateau, about 6 feet wide, on which I might rest ; 

 this plateau was about 100 feet or so below me. 

 After looking at several places, which I did by crawling 

 along the top of the ridge, I at last fixed on a part 

 that did not look quite so steep as the others. I 

 examined it well before I settled on it, which was more 

 than necessary, as I saw, if once I started, I could not 

 possibly get back again. Assured that it was my best, 

 indeed my only chance, I sat down, with my back to 

 the rock, and putting my pole down as far as I could, 

 poked about till it caught on something firm ; before it 

 did this, however, it dislodged several stones which 

 took a couple of jumps, and the next minute were 

 dashed to pieces on the smooth glacier-marked rocks 

 below me. Having no wish to imitate these un- 

 fortunate victims to my climbing propensities, I took 

 the greatest care, and so in a way which I never since 

 could clearly recall to my memory, got half-way down 

 the first part; then came a very awkward place the cliff 

 went so straight down it was impossible for me to 

 continue my descent in the same manner that I had 

 started, which slow and particularly uncomfortable 

 mode of progression I had not been able to change. 

 Now came the necessity for doing so ; squeezing one 

 knee and part of my leg into a kind of hole, I gently 

 lifted my alpenstock, on which I had been resting my 

 whole weight, using it as a kind of prop, and placing it 

 across my chest from left to right like a bar, and taking my 

 knee out of the hole the moment I had the pole fixed, I 

 swung gently round and caught a ledge with both my 

 hands, letting my pole drop, which, of course, never 

 stopped till it got to the bottom ; this was a great loss 

 to me, as I most certainly could not have got as far as 

 I had done without it. I was now about 20 feet 



