390 SHORT STALKS 



in front, when Grove's hat blew off, and trundled down- 

 wards. We were carefully watching where it would go, 

 with a view to recoverino- it at the bottom, when it sud- 

 denly disappeared, and we then noticed what seemed to be 

 a faint line drawn across the neve at that place, and that 

 l;)eyond it, what appeared to be the continuation of the 

 slope was of a yellower colour than the snow close at hand. 

 In a few minutes more we were near enoug-h to see that the 

 line was the edge of a cliff of some sort, and that the yellow 

 neve beyond was, in fact, many hundred feet below it. 



The whole glacier seemed to have slipped away from 

 its source, causing a fault, to use a geological term, — a 

 cliff of ice, stretching in a curved line, without a break, 

 completely across the stream. For the greater part of 

 its height it was not perfectly precipitous, and was so 

 much broken that it seemed just possible to cut a way 

 down it, but its upper portion was a sheer glassy wall. 

 The rocks on 1)oth sides had our first attention, but they 

 were almost as steep as the ice, and there was no footing 

 on them. We unfastened ourselves from the rope and 

 ran up and down the edge, each on his own account, 

 looking for some means of escape, and finding none ; 

 and then we followed Jakol) or Cachat about, in hopes 

 of hearing some word of consolation from their oracular 

 lips. At one place the cliff was vertical for only thirtv 

 feet, or thereabouts, and it would have Ijeen possible to 

 drive in an axe, and let ourselves down, but the landing 

 below, in that place, was hardly less precarious than the 

 wall itself. There was another place nearer the side of the 

 glacier which to my eyes seemed so hopeless that I scarcely 

 looked twice at it — a great three-cornered serac, which had 



