TICKLISH WORK. 49 



other way up, and in vain for my other tiir. 

 Luck in the matter of tur seemed against me, 

 and it was with little hope that I consented to a 

 further exploration of the range on the chance 

 that some herd which might have been feed- 

 ing far below was still unscared by my shots. 



Two or three ridges had been crossed and 

 a deep gully lay between us and the next. To 

 cross this gully there were two ways open to 

 us, either to make a circuit of a couple of 

 versts, or nearly that, over a moraine below, 

 or else to ascend to the top of the ridge and 

 creep across a difficult expanse of steep bare 

 rock. We chose the latter, as being much the 

 shorter of the two. 



Across the rock, though it was ticklish 

 work, all went well, but when we were half 

 way over, what we thought had been soft 

 snow proved to be a little snow-field, hanging 

 almost perpendicularly against the wall of the 

 rock and as hard as ice on the surface. Simon 



VOL. II. E 



