24 TRAVEL, AD VENTURE, AND SPORT. 



position may be gained from the letter TV, depressing 

 the centre angle, and imagining that the cliff on 

 which we were standing. The feet of our ladders 

 were set firm on the neck of the cliff, and then it was 

 allowed to lean over the crevice until its other end 

 touched the walL so to speak, of the valley. Its top 

 round was, even then, seven or eight feet below where 

 we wanted to get. One of the young guides went 

 first with his axe, and contrived, by some extraordinary 

 succession of gymnastic feats, to get safely to the top, 

 although we all trembled for him and indeed for 

 ourselves ; for, tied as we all were, and on such a 

 treacherous standing, had he stumbled he would have 

 pulled the next after him, and so on, one following 

 the other, until we should all have gone hopelessly 

 to perdition. Once safe, he soon helped his fellows, 

 and one after the other we were drawn up, holding 

 to the cord for our lives. The only accident that be- 

 fell me on the journey here happened. Being pulled 

 quickly up, my ungloved hand encountered a sharp 

 bit of granite frozen in the ice, and this cut through 

 the veins on my wrist. The wound bled furiously 

 for a few minutes ; but the excitement of the scramble 

 had been so great, that I actually did not know I was 

 hurt until I saw the blood on the snow. I tied my 

 handkerchief round the cut, and it troubled me no 

 more ; but from such hurried surgery it has left a 

 pretty palpable scar. 

 . Our porters would go no farther promises and 



