PEAKS AND I'ASSES ;5!»1 



partt'tl iVoni the edge, niid was tottering to its fall, causing 

 a rift ill tlic face of the clitl" wliidi iiiiglit or iiiiglil not 

 extend to tlie foot of tlie wall. Twice Jakol) lav down 

 on his stomach and peered over the edge at this phiee, hut 

 each linic he had come a\\a\' with a. shruir and a i-runt, 

 and gone hack to the phice where the cliff was h)west and 

 in whicli ('achat seemed to ])]ace most reliance. An old 

 general ol' Persia once said : "" if yon op})ose everything 

 that is proposed and do not advance something certain, 

 you must fail in \'our jdans." Jakob, if he had never read 

 Herodotus, had im1)il)ed the maxim. Once more he 

 i'ctuitic(l. drew hack a few steps for a sliort run, and 

 holdly leapt from the edge on to the scrnc. Fj'om thence 

 he was better able to judge of the possil)ility of turning 

 the cleft into a subwav. After a louo; inspection he c;dled 

 on us to follow. I confess that I didn't like this leap into 

 the unknown. ^\y artist has perhaps somewhat exag- 

 gerated it, for in itself the chasm was easy to spring 

 across, but the great hunk of ice had sunk as well as 

 separated, and it was several feet lower than that fi-om 

 which it had parte«l. To spring back was ()b\-i()uslv 

 impossible. lli>wever, our confidence in Jakob was bound- 

 less, and swallowing our scruples, one by ou(^ we leajit the 

 chasm. Immediately below us the ch't't was blocked with 

 snow to within a few vards of ihr ,-uitace, and we were 

 lowere(l (111 to this one l)y one, the l,i>t man coming <h)\\ii 

 with a run. while tlm-e belnw stood firm to catch hiui. a 

 svstem of tactics tliat we had recourse to man\' times 

 durinu' the afternoon. The snuw we had aliuhled on iiaNe 

 us fjood footinix, and we descended some distance farther 

 into the biiwels of the rrlacicr bv its means. When ihis 



