i86o-6i ASCENT OF THE CIME DE JAZI 105 



higher as we ascended. A group of chamois was 

 discerned by the guides, and seen by some of 

 the party, but I had my green-glass goggles and 

 had adjusted my veil, and would not disturb the 

 essential arrangement against snow-blindness for 

 the chance of detecting the little antelopes on a 

 distant rock. Some of the party had white cloth 

 masks, with holes for the green spectacles, for the 

 nose and mouth, and presented most grotesque 

 figures. We got to more frozen but finely 

 granular snow on a steeper rise, sinking in it 

 often knee-deep or more. I followed as closely 

 as I could the footsteps of the guide before me. 



1 Every now and then was a halt, and we gazed 

 upon the wonderful and ever-varying environment ; 

 new snow-capped mountains, with their dark 

 rocky precipices, coming into view, but, as yet, 

 not the summit we were bound for. We passed 

 some grand crevasses, the openings of yawning 

 chasms of more than 2,000 feet sheer ; we must 

 occasionally have traversed snow-bridges over 

 such. On one occasion my left leg sank suddenly 

 up to the hip, and as the guide lifted me out I felt 

 certain that the foot had no resting-place, but had 

 projected into a subnival space. On surmounting 

 the ascending part of our snowy route we saw the 

 base of the summit of the Cima, distant by a vast 

 tract of the glacier, along which we went for a 

 mile or so by a slight descent or undulating plain. 

 At length we reached the base of the consummate 



