260 CAUCASIAN GLACIERS AXD FORESTS. 



by sinking up to his slioulders in a concealed crevasse. 

 Not long- after this incident, the slope before us lessened, 

 and the view of the upper region, to which we had been 

 anxiously looking forward for so many hours, burst upon 

 us. It was now 1.30 p.m., and we had therefore spent six 

 hours in fighting our way up the icefall, the height of 

 which, from the rough measurements possible with our 

 aneroid, we estimated at but little under 4,000 feet. The 

 famous ' seracs ' of the Col du Geant are child's-play 

 when put in comparison with these Caucasian rivals, and I 

 think it very possible that a party endeavouring to force 

 this passage at a later period of the summer might meet 

 with a signal repulse. 



Our feelings, on viewing the new scene revealed to us, 

 were those of mingled admiration, astonishment, and per- 

 plexity. Like Jack when he had climbed his beanstalk, 

 we were a good deal taken aback by the strange region 

 in which we found ourselves, and not a little puzzled 

 what to do next. Before us stretched a vast reservoir 

 of snow, which soon split into two bays, running respec- 

 tively east and south. The eastern branch broke down 

 upon the other in a grand fall of seracs ; its head was 

 surrounded by a number of magnificent rock-peaks, in- 

 cluding amongst them the mass which had presented so im- 

 posing an appearance from our bivouac, not at all dwarfed 

 by nearer approach. The surface of the southern bay was 

 almost a dead flat, hemmed in by icy ridges, the summits 

 of which scarcely attained the dignity of sej)arate moun- 

 tains. The extent of these snowfields was, to us who had 

 to make our way to the other side of them, almost 

 appalling ; how much of the effect they produced on our 

 minds was owing to the exciting struggle we had gone 

 through to attain them, it is of course impossible to say. 

 I suppose, if the first men who saw the upper regions of 



