Chapter XL 



rock comes to the surface. The eastern and western rido-es 

 seemed to offer easy routes to the summit. 



They remained less than half an hour on the joeak. There 

 was no ho2)e of the mists disappearing that day, and after 

 finishing the barometric and tliermometric observations, and 

 enjoying the first enthusiasm of victory, they began to feel the 

 penetrating cold of tlit^ wind. There was an impressive sense of 

 solitude in perching ujhhi this narrow snowy ridge, with the 

 wliole eartli cut ofi' from them })y the mist. Glaciers, precipices 

 and peaks, valleys and plains, lakes and forests, were all veiled 

 by the dense layer of fog, interjDosed like a barrier between the 

 burning regions of Equatorial Africa and the eternal Alpine 

 snows. 



They re-descended the ice wall, resumed their loads, and 

 returned to Alexandra Peak. By 2.20 p.m. they returned to 

 their tent. A few hours later they were all four stricken 

 with snow-blindness. They had been exposed during the whole 

 day to the dazzling AA'hiteness of the fog, and unable to make 

 use of their l)lack spectacles, witli which it was impossible to 

 see anything at all. They spent the night and the following day 

 in the tent, bathing their swollen and weeping eyes with tea. 



On the following day, 20th of June, they were all much 

 better, so early in the morning they started from the tent in very 

 fine weather, and returned to Alexandra Peak by the same patii 

 wliicli they liad taken two days before. The Duke arrived on 

 the top about 7.:-)() a.m., and worked for a long time at measming 

 tlie angles of tlie ])eaks and the salient j)()iiits of tlic cliaiii. He 

 set out again at 9.0 a.m. Drifts of fog were now beginning to 

 invade tlie scene. They returned to the high glacier-plain 

 and set foith foi- the two fine rock and ice peaks which stood 

 at its southern cxtrcniitv. 



180 



