Chapter VI. 



proceeded with their faces turned to the wall, placing their 

 feet witli caution in tlie wide ste})s whicli Petigax cut in the 

 snow, wliicli was fortunately liard and hore them well. 



Tlie col is a narrow strip of ice hetween two wide crevasses 

 (Ìh' lyscji I'll lid) ; these crevasses pass from one peak to another 

 without a single l)ridge. Tt was impossihle to turn to tlie right 

 or to t\w left ; thev could oidv go straight forward to the ice 

 wall, wliich thev could barely make out through the mist. 



Where the slope commenced to become steep they put down 

 their rucksacks and othei- unnecessary impedimenta, and Petigax 

 set to woik again. Thev soon stood nearly vertically one above 

 the otlici-. cliiiihiug slowly by the steep steps which Petigax cut 

 in the" ice wall, showering down a hail of snow and ice upon the 

 others. Belo^^" them the wall was almost immediately swallowed 

 up in the mist, so that they seemed suspended over a bottomless 

 abyss. 



In this May thev reached the bottom of the cornice where 

 the pendant icicles, joining the upright ice needles, formed 

 a colonnade as thick as the trees in a forest, upon which 

 rested the hea\y snow-dome Ayhose solidity was open to doubt. 

 The effect seen tliroutrh the mist was sti'ano-e and weird. In 

 their insecure position, holding fast to the steep slope, thev had 

 to climb around the ice columns to reach the point where the 

 cornice jutted out from the ice wall in order to find a passage. 

 This passage they found in a cleft of the cornice which formed 

 a narrow vertical gullv some six feet high. ( )llier, standing 

 tiiiiiK' u))on a wide steji, seixed as a laddei' ibi- Petiga.x, who 

 climbed on his shoulders and then npon his head, with his heavy 

 nailed boots, and stuck his ice-axe firniK' in the snow above the 

 cornice. in tins \\a\' he hoisted himself on to the to]). It was 

 easy enoni;li foi' the others to joni hiin. 'I'he ridge was now 



18l' 



