Page:My Climbs in the Alps and Caucasus.djvu/220

Rh strangely impressive in gazing over a great ice wall into inky darkness and absolute silence. The sense of boundless depth and utter mystery seems to pervade one's whole being. The utmost light of our lantern failed in any way to pierce the gloom, and despondency was settling down on us, and we were making up our minds to a night on the snow, when a rift in the clouds let a glint of moonlight fall on the glacier and the existence of firm land, or rather glacier, was disclosed some fifty feet below, accessible by a sort of peninsula of ice. The moon having done us this good turn, very unkindly extinguished itself again and left Slingsby the pleasant task of cutting along a nearly perpendicular face of névé with an extremely wide crevasse underneath, aided only by such light as a folding lantern emits. Our leader, however, appeared to thoroughly enjoy the business, the chipping gradually got more remote, and one after another my companions disappeared over the edge into the darkness. At last it became my painful duty to follow. Cheery voices out of the gloom told me that it was perfectly easy, but on this point I most emphatically disagree. The large coal-scuttle-like steps which I was assured existed in profusion, appeared to me mere scratches in loose and rotten snow, while the highly extolled hand-holds broke away at the least strain and served no useful purpose, other than filling my pockets with their broken débris. However, I