206 SIBERIA 



I felt that I was going to lose the use of my hands. 

 I began the descent, but the wind had glazed the 

 rock with ice and I was a very long time climb- 

 ing down, and had to exercise the greatest caution. 

 The climax came when I found myself above a gully 

 which required to be climbed down and appeared 

 to project very considerably. I had not come up 

 it, so I concluded that I had lost the route by which 

 I had made the ascent. I stuck in that gully, care- 

 fully culculating whether I could let myself drop 

 with safety on to a ledge, about two feet wide, 

 covered with snow and slightly slanting outwards, 

 some distance below me. I knew that if the slopes 

 were ice-glazed I should almost certainly slip and 

 fall down the mountain, but I was unable to get 

 back. I argued that the ledge had been protected 

 through being in a north-westerly position, and at 

 last let myself drop. As luck would have it, I was 

 able, just as I landed on the ledge, to grasp a pro- 

 jiecting piece of rock which had been invisible to 

 me from above, and clinging to it with my ice-axe, 

 which hung on my arm fastened by the leather strap, 

 I was quite safe. The remainder of the climb was 

 faiirly easy, because it was below the line where 

 the fierce wind had frozen the snow into ice. In a 

 little while I regained the moraiine, where I had 

 left my camera and several other things, and started 

 on my return journey. The temperature on the 

 moraine was i8 degrees below freezing point. I 

 found it very difficult walking, as I was getting very 

 tired and my body was racked with internal pain. 

 There was no fighting the feeling that I was quite ill. 

 J knew, however, that if I gave up there I should 

 probably never be found, so I made another 

 desperate effort. Progress over the moraine became 

 difficult in the extreme. It required all my will 

 power to cover the four miles, and each mile took me 



