was nearest the top, and asked him if I could go
down there, to which, of course, he answered yes, as
most people do when they do not know what to say,
and must give some reply.
I had brought up with me an alpen-stock, or long
stick, slightly curved at one end, and with this I
reached down and broke places for my heels in the
crust that covered the sand and loose stones. For
hundreds of feet beneath me the descent seemed perpendicular,
but I slowly worked my way downward
for more than ninety feet, and had begun to congratulate
myself on the good progress I was making.
Soon, I thought, I shall be down there, where I can
lay hold of that bush and feel that the worst is past,
when I was suddenly startled by a shout from my
companions, who were at some distance on my right.
“ Stop! Don’t go a step farther, but climb directly
up just as you went down.” I now looked round for
the first time, and found, to my astonishment, that I
was on a tongue of land between two deep, long holes
or fissures, where great land-slides had recently occurred.
I had kept my attention so fixed on the
bush before me that I had never looked to the right or
left—generally a good rule in such trying situations.
To go on was to increase my peril, so I turned,
climbed up again, and passed round the head of one
of these frightful holes. If at any time the crust had
been weak, and had broken beneath my heels, no
earthly power could have saved me from instant
death. As I broke place after place for my feet with
the staff, I thought of Professor Tyndal’s dangerous
ascent and descent of Monte Rosa. At last I joined