28 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



which was received with all the acquiescence and 

 good temper imaginable. So we asked him to con- 

 tribute his stores to our table, and I daresay should 

 have got on very well together, but the guides began 

 to squabble about what they considered a breach of 

 etiquette, and presently, with his attendant, he moved 

 away to the next rock. Afterwards another "fol- 

 lower " arrived with two guides, and he subsequently 

 reached the summit. 



"We kept high festival that afternoon on the Grands 

 Mulcts. One stage of our journey and that one by 

 no means the easiest had been achieved without the 

 slightest hurt or harm. The consciousness of success 

 thus far, the pure transparent air, the excitement 

 attached to the very position in which we found our- 

 selves, and the strange bewildering novelty of the 

 surrounding scenery, produced a flowing exhilaration 

 of spirits that I had never before experienced. The 

 feeling was shared by all ; and we laughed and sang, 

 and made the guides contribute whatever they could 

 to the general amusement, and told them such stories 

 as would translate well in return, until, I believe, 

 that dinner will never be forgotten by them. A fine 

 diversion was afforded by racing the empty bottles 

 down the glacier. "We flung them off from the rock 

 as far as we were able, and then watched their course. 

 "Whenever they chanced to point neck first down the 

 slope, they started off with inconceivable velocity, 

 leaping the crevices by their own impetus, until they 



