42 TKAVEL, AD VENTURE, AND SPOET. 



which all night long had been twisted round our hata 

 I felt very chilled and dispirited. I had now passed 

 two nights without sleep ; and I had really eaten 

 nothing since the yesterday's morning but part of an 

 egg, a piece of fowl, and a little bit of bread for my 

 illness had taken away all my appetite ; and on this 

 small diet I had been undergoing the greatest work. 

 But none of us were complaining of nausea, or diffi- 

 culty of breathing, or blood to the head, or any of 

 the other symptoms which appear to have attacked 

 most persons even on the Grand Plateau ; so I 

 plucked up fresh courage, and prepared for our next 

 achievement. 



This was no light affair. From the foot of the 

 Eochers Eouges there runs a huge and slanting but- 

 tress of ice, round which we had to climb from the 

 north-east to the east. Its surface was at an angle of 

 about sixty degrees. Above us it terminated in a 

 mighty cliff, entirely covered with icicles of marvel- 

 lous length and beauty ; below, it was impossible to 

 see where it went, for it finished suddenly in an edge, 

 which was believed to be the border of a great crevice. 

 Along this we now had to go ; and the journey was as 

 hazardous a one as a man might make along a steeply 

 pitched roof with snow on it. Jean Carrier went first 

 with his axe, and very cautiously cut every step in 

 which we were to place our feet in the ice. It is 

 difficult at times to walk along ice on a level ; but 

 when that ice is tilted up more than half-way towards 



