Page:My Climbs in the Alps and Caucasus.djvu/215

174 precarious that any miscalculation in balance would have inevitably involved a slip. The cliff immediately below is remarkably precipitous even for the Chamonix Aiguilles, and I hardly like to say how many thousand feet the scientist of the party declared it to be.

The next stage did not appear very much easier. The aforementioned wrinkle, with one or two other similar rugosities, afforded the only means of support. Clutching them between my fingers and thumb, and scraping my feet downwards on the rough granite, I succeeded in getting sufficient propelling power to work up inch by inch. Fortunately the rock was pleasantly warm, and Hastings ever shouted out most comforting assurances; so, little by little, the difficulties yielded and a gasping climber at length reached the square-cut top of the tower.

The rest of the party quickly followed, and we again indulged in a quiet bask. Starting once more, we were soon confronted by a profusion of that sort of split rock which is known to habitués of the Montenvers as a "letter-box." In the present instance the postal arrangements were represented by three of these boxes; that to the left being the most formidable and that to the right the easiest. I made a preliminary survey of the middle one as it did not appear wholly certain that that on the right led to the ridge above. However, it proved distinctly difficult, and the