of the Old World. 435 



dismal solitude reigned in this wilderness of rocks and 

 beetling crags : even our voices seemed to re-echo 

 with a strange unearthly sound. After a fatiguing 

 climb up a narrow fissure in the mountain, filled with 

 loose stones and fragments of rock, that rolled from 

 under the feet at every step, we gained a grass- 

 covered slope, which, although steep, afforded great 

 relief after our fag up the bed of the watercourse. 

 As we plodded along we saw a troop of ibex scam- 

 pering along a craggy ridge many hundred feet below 

 us, yet the air was so rare that we distinctly heard 

 the clatter of their hoofs against the rocks and the 

 rolling of the pebbles they displaced, and shortly 

 afterwards we saw a flight of butterflies that followed 

 our course for some distance, frequently alighting on 

 our persons. The ibex were the last we saw of animal 

 life; flowers became extremely rare, and no insects 

 were to be seen, for very shortly afterwards we 

 reached the eternal snow, which, to our surprise, 

 proved far easier travelling than the naked rock. 



We now tied ourselves together with ropes pro- 

 vided for the purpose, allowing about ten feet between 

 each man, which proved a very necessary precaution, 

 as every now and again one or another of our num- 

 ber would sink up to his middle in holes concealed 

 by the snow, notwithstanding we endeavoured to find 

 them out by sounding the way with our staves. For 

 several hours we continued to make our way up the 



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