20 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPOET. 



outer crust of the snow lying upon it is tolerably 

 hard. "VVe marched on in single file, the guides 

 taking it by turns to lead (as the first man had of 

 course the heaviest work), amidst cliffs and hillocks, 

 and across sloping fields and uplands, all of dazzling 

 whiteness. I here observed, for the first time, the 

 intense dark -blue colour which the sky apparently 

 assumes. This is only by comparison with the 

 unsubdued glare from the snow on all sides since, 

 on making a kind of lorgnette with my two hands, 

 and looking up, as I might have done at a picture, 

 there was nothing unusual in the tint. Our veils 

 and glasses now proved great comforts, for the sun 

 was scorching and the blinding light from the glaciers 

 actually distressing. By degrees our road became less 

 practicably easy. We had to make zigzag paths up 

 very steep pitches, and go out of our line to circum- 

 vent threatening ice -blocks or suspected crevices. 

 The porters, too, began to grumble, and there was 

 a perpetual wrangling going on between them and 

 the guides as to the extent of their auxiliary march ; 

 and another bottle of wine had constantly to be 

 added to the promised reward when they returned 

 to Chamouni. All this time we had been steadily 

 ascending ; and at last the glacier was so broken, and 

 the crevices so frequent and hugely gaping, that the 

 guides tied us and themselves together with cords, 

 leaving a space of about eight feet between each two 

 men, and prepared for serious work. 



