RUGGEDNESS OF MOUNT KOSCIUSKO 55 



ground, many days will probably be lost before the explorer 

 finds an accessible passage. Both the axe and the pick 

 are required to clear the path, and ropes and a ladder, if 

 not actually necessary, will be found most useful aids to a 

 successful ascent. A mass of rock twenty or thirty feet 

 high may be climbed over with the help of a rope and short 

 ladder in less than a tenth of the time it would take to 

 work round it. Even with the assistance of a good guide, 

 and every imaginable accessory of the mountaineer, I do 

 not think it is possible to ascend Kosciusko in a shorter 

 time than two or three days, supposing the explorer to 

 start from one of the stations which are now tolerably 

 numerous near its base. I have ascended it three times, 

 taking from five days to a week to perform the journey ; 

 but then my object was not to do the feat in a given time, 

 and there was no hurry at any point of the journey. Twice 

 I had companions with me, but on the third and last 

 occasion I had but a single blackfellow attendant, a most 

 useful man, who could climb like a monkey, and thoroughly 

 understood the work required from him, and though I 

 should be sorry to be thought of an unsociable nature, I 

 must say that I think that dangerous rock-scaling parties 

 cannot be too small. Where there are several members 

 of the party, they cannot all be of the same powers of 

 endurance, nor all have the same steadiness of head, and 

 the progress of the more active climbers is delayed, and 

 their danger increased by the necessity there is of looking 

 after the weak and timorous ones. One man with a 

 determined object in view, with a single reliable attendant, 

 is far more likely to succeed than a large party. As to 

 the mutual help afforded one to another by a party of four 

 or five, since my first mountaineering experience I have 

 been strongly of opinion that it is the weak and nervous 

 who require the help, and they cannot, therefore, be 

 otherwise than a source of danger to the active members 

 of the party. On a picnic excursion, with enjoyment as 

 the sole object of the expedition, it is reasonable that the 

 strong should make sacrifices to the weak ; but on ascents 

 with deeper purposes in view it is not unreasonable to 



