ASCENT OF MONT BLANC. 23 



over it with tolerable coolness ; and where it was over 

 three or four feet in breadth, we made a bridge of 

 the ladder, and walked over on the rounds. There 

 is no great difficulty, to be sure, in doing this, when 

 a ladder lies upon the ground ; but with a chasm of 

 unknown depth below it, it is satisfactory to get to 

 the other side as quickly as possible. 



At a great many points the snow made bridges, 

 which we crossed easily enough. Only one was 

 permitted to go over at a time; so that, if it gave 

 way, he might remain suspended by the rope attached 

 to the main body. Sometimes we had to make long 

 detours to get to the end of a crevice, too wide to 

 cross any way ; at others, we would find ourselves all 

 wedged together, not daring to move, on a neck of 

 ice that at first I could scarcely have thought adequate 

 to have afforded footing to a goat. When we were 

 thus fixed, somebody cut notches in the ice, and 

 climbed up or down as the case required ; then the 

 knapsacks were pulled up or lowered ; then we fol- 

 lowed, and finally, the rest got up as they could. 

 One scramble we had to make was rather frightful. 

 The reader must imagine a valley of ice, very narrow, 

 but of unknown depth. Along the middle of this 

 there ran a cliff, also of ice, very narrow at the top, 

 and ending suddenly, the surface of which might 

 have been fifteen feet lower than the top of this 

 valley on either side, and on it we could not stand 

 two abreast. A rough notion of a section of this 



