248 SCIENCE SKETCHES. 



had gone out of the mountain. The great rock fell 

 about thirty feet. Striking a lower shelf, it broke 

 into three or four pieces. One of these, weighing 

 about a hundred pounds, flew over my head and 

 over the heads of John and Victor. The man be- 

 low us had turned to look back when he heard the 

 noise; the rock struck him in the face, knocked 

 him instantly off the ledge and out of our sight, 

 and then plunged down the side of the mountain. 



We were all paralyzed for an instant, the 

 guides as well as the rest. I remember calling to 

 John to give me rope, so that I could go down to 

 Victor, and let him go down to Gilbert. By the 

 time we got down, Gilbert was struggling to his 

 feet. He had fallen as far as the rope would let 

 him. His face and clothes were covered with blood 

 which flowed from a deep cut like a sabre gash 

 across his nose and forehead. A stiff-brimmed hat- 

 which he wore had been cut fairly in two, and its 

 resistance had helped to weaken the force of the 

 blow. We decided that no bone was broken, al- 

 though the wound was a most serious one. Once 

 at the bottom, we could take care of him perhaps ; 

 but should he faint, or be unable or unwilling to 

 walk, we should have a difficult task to carry him 

 down. We tied up the cuts with all the silk hand- 

 kerchiefs in the party, covered them with snow, and 

 put over them all a thick woollen hood, which John 

 the Baptist carried for use in time of need. In five 

 minutes we were moving again. We were unable 

 wholly to stop the flow of blood, and our course 

 was marked by a red trail. Gilbert's face was soon 

 entirely covered by a red clot ; his eyelids swelled 



