VIII THE CAVE 119 



even more essential than water, as the night was bound 

 to be very cold. 



So we went along carefully, and after an unpleasant 

 climb along a shale slope, from which every detached 

 stone went rolling down to the edge of the cutting, and 

 then fell, after an ominous pause, clattering amongst the 

 rocks below, we reached a small stream coming from our 

 left, beyond which was a snow slope forming a bridge 

 over the cuttino^. No wood was to be found here, but 

 beyond the snow bridge, a long way up the hillside, we 

 saw a pine wood, and resolved to seek shelter for the 

 night there. It was beginning to get dusk as we splashed 

 through the stream and across the snow bridge, the bitter 

 cold water being very uncomfortable as it soaked through 

 our grass shoes and puttoo socks, but wood was in sight, 

 and we knew we should shortly have a warm fire blazing. 

 In less than half an hour we were searchinof about in the 

 wood for a sheltering rock with snow near it, for there 

 was no stream, 'and we wanted snow to supply us with 

 drinking water. Towards the top of the wood we found 

 a place where some heavy rocks had tumbled down, in 

 such a way that one large one had remained supported 

 on two or three others, and thus formed a roof. 



The sort of cave that resulted from this was a kind of 

 rectangular enclosure, with one of the two long sides 

 open to the air, while the other three were closed in by 

 rocks. One end was full of snow and large icicles ; the 

 other end ran narrowing up into the rocks, and though 

 there was no opening visible, I could feel by the cold air 

 which came down that somewhere in that direction there 

 was communication with the outer world. The floor, 



