374 SHORT STALKS 



say breakfast — witli an appetite at 11 p.m., still more 

 (litHciilt to sleep tliroiigli the intervening hours. Thus it 

 was not a very hilarious party that started soon after 

 midniglit on a very dark night ; nor were our spirits 

 stimuhited l»y the weather. Tlie clouds looked oily, and 

 the watery moonlight behind them showed that they were 

 streamino- overhead at a oreat rate, straiQ:lit from the torrid 

 plains of Lombardy. Such a southerly wind, as all 

 mountaineers know, was certain to give us trouble. 



In bad weather mountaineering is uncertain and often 

 risky, so that ascents which in clear weather are com- 

 paratively simple, become, under other conditions, most 

 formidable. On the other hand, the mountain gloom, the 

 sudden lifting of the curtain, the visions of fairy light 

 seen through the rifts, the mysterious depths half revealed, 

 make it far more interestino-. 



O 



At first, the route lay over grassy alps, and we had 

 only to steer towards the frowning masses diml)' seen in 

 front. 1 always found that in these ghostly walks l)efore 

 cock-crow, the time passed quickly enough, provided that 

 the pace were not forced ; and in what seemed a short space 

 of time, we were skirtino- the base of the Aiouille du G outer. 

 We had engaged a han.ger-on of the little inn, whose local 

 knowledge was supposed to be equal to keeping us in the 

 little goat-track which leads towards the Glacier de 

 Bionnassay ; l»ut when we got among the rocks, either the 

 darkness was to() much for him, or he passed l)eyond his 

 ken, so that we presently found ourselves plunging and 

 stund)liiig over hidden obstacles. He hopelessly lost his 

 way, and we our tempers. So we sent him 1)a('k to his 

 natural function — cleanino" boots. But now we rounded 



