50 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 



suggested turning back, and did all in his 

 power to dissuade me from crossing it, but as 

 he expressed his own ability to cross I made 

 up my mmd to folloAv him rather than make 

 the long journey round. So digging foot- 

 holds with his alpenstock as he went, Simon 

 led the way until we were half across. 



Here one of my feet slipped, and before I 

 knew what had happened I heard a scream 

 from the Svan and found myself gliding 

 easily but at an awful pace down the slope. 

 In a moment I knew all was over with me, 

 and in that moment I learnt how man's mind 

 can work when it is wound up to its full 

 power of concentration. I saw the whole 

 shape of the slope like a man's legs with the 

 left one cut off at the knee, and there an end, 

 with a drop of jDerhaps 500 feet on to the iron 

 edges of the rocks beneath. The other limb 

 of the snow slope was too long for me to know 

 what was at its end, but it could be no worse 



