PEAKS AND PASSES 393 



came to an end. J;il<()l) [)i'oceeded to cut (li;iu<»ii;illy down- 

 wards, plant in n" his steps on eaeli side alternately. This 

 was slow work, and the smooth lihtc walls drew largely 

 on oiir stock of vital heat. 



There is no foundation lor tlu' popular dclinition of 

 neve, namcK- unconsolidated snow. These same walls were 

 composed of iee as hard and transparent as any to he found 

 in the artificial caves at ( Jfindclwald. And yet we were 

 at a height of twelve thousand feet, and many thousands 

 of" feet ahovc the limits of" what is o'enerallv calle*! neve. 

 I question whether the laNcr of" ]iowdery or granulated 

 snow is e\'cr nioi't' than a few feet thirk on the to}» of the 

 denser material. The etfect of the weather is so (piickly 

 to granulate the surfaces and cause a su])(U-ficial resem- 

 blance to snow that none hut a fresh hreakao'C exhibits the 

 clear ice. 



All this time that we worked downwards, or rather that 

 Jakol) woiked and we supported om*selves with outstretched 

 legs, the interest was too absorbing for us to think much of 

 the cold, as we A\ere never al»le to see I'or nian\' xards what 

 was before us. Jhit at last lisiht beiian to be reflected on 

 the walls in front of us as well as from above, and. on 

 turning a corner in i\\q crevasse, wo, saw out through the 

 split that it made in the face of the cliff. At the bottom 

 of the split, which we could easily have reached, the cliff 

 outside was too sheer fir a footing, so Jakob cut upwards 

 again towards a higher point where it looked nioic promis- 

 ing. As the crevasse here became too bi'o;id h.r ;i p;iir (.f 

 leo-s to stretch across, this was a Liraml dillicuhw The 

 manuiT in which .Talcob >olved it was a niaster|nece of 

 mountaineering skill, (piite the chef-d'ccuvre of" the many 



