The Sierra Nevada 307 



under way — six of us — ou mules, though 1 would have preferred 

 to walk, the snow being so deep one could not see where the 

 edges of the precipices were. No sooner had I mounted than the 

 mule fell down while crossiuo^ a hill-torrent, and I was jrlad to 

 find the water no deeper. 



After climbing steadily upward all tlie morning, the last two 

 hours on foot, the snow knee-deep, we at length sighted the 

 cairn on the lieio;ht to which we were bound. Before niirhtfall 

 we had reached the point, but few of the mules accomplished the 

 last few hundred yards. x4.fter bravely trying again and again, 

 the poor beasts sank exhausted in the snow, and we had to carry 

 up the impedimenta ourselves in repeated journeys. Tlie deep 

 snow, the tremendous ascent, and impossibility of seeing a foot- 

 hold made this porterage most laborious, but w^e had all safely 

 stowed in our cave before sundown. 



The overhanging rock, which for the next ten or twelve days 

 was to serve as our abode, we found a mass of icicles. These we 

 proceeded to clear away, and then by a good fire to melt our ice- 

 enamelled ceiling, fancying that the constant drip on our noses all 

 night might be unpleasant. The altitude of our ledge above sea- 

 level was about 8500 feet, and our plateau of rest — our home, so 

 to speak — measured just seven yards by two. 



Early next morning we proceeded to erect snow-screens at 

 favourable " passes," wherein to await the wild-goats as they 

 moved up or down the mountaiu-side at dawn and dusk re- 

 spectively, their favourite food being the rye-grass which the 

 peasants from the villages below contrive to grow in tiny patches 

 — two or three square yards scattered here and there amidst the 

 crags. It is only by rare industry that even so paltry a crop can 

 be snatched at such altitudes, and during the short period when 

 the snow is absent from the southern aspects. At present it 

 enveloped everything — not a blade of vegetation nor a mouthful 

 for a wild-goat could be seen. 



Although during the day the snow was generally soft — the 

 sun being very hot — yet after dark w^e found the way dangerous, 

 traversing a sloping, slippery ice-surface like a huge glacier, where 

 a slip or false step would send one down half a mile with nothing 

 to clutch at, or to save oneself. Such a slide meant death, for 

 it could only terminate in a precipice or in one of those horrible 

 holes with a raging torrent to receive one in its dark abyss, and 



