258 CAUCASIAN GLACIEKS AND FORESTS. 



could effect. This was not much, and the deficiencies 

 of the frail structure were too serious to be supplied bj 

 any ingenious contrivances. We had to descend a bank 

 of ice, six feet high, to reach the level of the snowy crest, 

 fully twenty feet in length, which, like an arch of Al Sirat, 

 was flung over the icicle -fringed chasms yawning to un- 

 known depths on either hand. The top of this crest was 

 uneven, and about the middle of the bridge an accurately- 

 measured and delicately-managed jump was requisite to 

 reach two pigeon-holes, cut by Fran9ois for the feet, on 

 the further side of an awkward gap. Then each walked 

 carefully for several yards, like a cat along the top of an 

 old and rotten wall, to the point where, instead of abutting 

 against the steep snow-bank on the opposite side of the 

 crevasse, the bridge broke down altogether, making a 

 second and still more awkward jump necessary. The 

 man in front, having made the leap and anchored himself 

 in the snow-bank, turned round and grabbed tight hold 

 of the arm of the next — a desirable precaution, as a little 

 too much impetus might have thrown the jumper backwards 

 into the chasm. Steps were then cut on to a promontory 

 of ice separating the big crevasse from a smaller relation, 

 which was not beyond a straight-forward jumj), more 

 formidable in appearance than reality, as the landing-place 

 was good. We were now in a position to take advantage 

 of a series of connected ridges, by which we made our 

 way back into one of the snow-filled depressions we had 

 found useful earlier in the day. For half an hour good 

 progress was made ; then again for half an hour we did 

 little but wander up and down, seeking some exit from a 

 fresh labyrinth, and almost despairing of final success. The 

 serac scenery throughout was of the grandest description, 

 and we were constantly forced to admire the beauty of our 

 stubborn foes, the icicle-fringed and blue- eaved crevasses, 



