Page:Canadian Alpine Journal I, 1.djvu/142

Rh keep off a bull-dog, and when he is once settled nothing short of a hard hit will move him.

The bull-dogs struck work during the afternoon, but almost before they had left, the mosquitoes began, and I think they were worse, for they kept on during the night.

At three o'clock next morning, Christian called me and I got up, but we had not brought any candles with us, and dressing in a tent in the dark is a somewhat difficult operation. However, after groping and feeling round, I found all my necessary things, and then went out to breakfast by firelight, the moon being in the last quarter did not give us much light. At four o'clock we three started. We went up a very steep snow-slope, which required some step-cutting, as the snow was so hard, and near the top there was a good deal of danger from falling stones. After we had reached the glacier, we had a fairly level stretch around the base of the peak to the ridge on the right hand, which we crossed and descended into a snow-basin on the other side. We then traversed a snow-slope and loose stones and rock till we were right round the farther side of the mountain and could find a practicable ridge by which to reach the summit. Some of the rocks were covered with ice, which made climbing very difficult, but on our descent the sun had turned the ice to water, and we got several shower-baths. The rocks were very rotten and interspersed with patches of snow and ice; and, when coming down, the snow was in such bad condition that we dared not trust it; so, accordingly, had to come by a different route to that by which we had gone up. When nearing the top, we thought possibly the other side of the ridge might be an easier way of ascent. Our present route lay chiefly along steep slabs of rock covered with loose stones, and here and there patches of ice which necessitated step-cutting. Accordingly, we worked our way to where