248 SCIENCE SKETCHES. 
had gone out of the mountain. The great rock fell 
about thirty feet. Striking a lower shelf,-it broke 
into three or four pieces. One of these, weighing 
about a hundred pounds, flew over my head and 
over the heads of John and Victor. The man be- 
low us had turned to look back when he heard the 
noise; the rock struck him in the face, knocked 
him instantly off the ledge and out of our sight, 
and then plunged down the side of the mountain. 
We were all paralyzed for an instant, — the 
guides as well as the rest. I remember calling to 
John to give me rope, so that I could go down to 
Victor, and let him go down to Gilbert. By the 
time we got down, Gilbert was struggling to his 
feet. He had fallen as far as the rope would let 
him. His face and clothes were covered with blood 
which flowed from a deep cut like a sabre gash 
across his nose and forehead. A stiff-brimmed hat 
which he wore had been cut fairly in two, and its 
resistance had helped to weaken the force of the 
blow. We decided that no bone was broken, al- 
though the wound was a most serious one. Once 
at the bottom, we could take care of him perhaps; 
but should he faint, or be unable or unwilling to 
walk, we should have a difficult task to carry him 
down. We tied up the cuts with all the silk hand- 
kerchiefs in the party, covered them with snow, and 
put over them all a thick woollen hood, which John 
the Baptist carried for use in time of need. In five 
minutes we were moving again. We were unable 
wholly to stop the flow of blood, and our course 
was marked by a red trail. Gilbert’s face was soon 
entirely covered by a red clot; his eyelids swelled 
