A DIFFICULT ASCENT. 
281 
cessantly. Here we looked in vain for a path leading 
to the summit, or inhabited part, which was already 
covered with black heads anxiously watching our 
progress. Two kings met us, and showed a 
narrow ledge, which seemed to be perfectly inac- 
cessible except to goats. They were desired to lead 
the way, and we followed up M^hat appeared to be 
the edge of a basaltic dyke, where hands were as much 
in requisition as feet. We scrambled up, however, 
as fast as their more practised Majesties, to the great 
admiration of the crowd on the summit. It was 
rather a nervous feat, as one false step would have 
dashed us to atoms. We never, in all our mountain 
rambles, had seen such a path, hardly even among those 
where the wild goat derides his pursuers. The first 
