Page:My Climbs in the Alps and Caucasus.djvu/251

206 dancing a hornpipe all night, was in favour of a bivouac. He yielded, however, to the sound principle that "he who pays the piper has a right to call the tune."

During the afternoon of the 29th of July I walked up to the Montenvers, and at eleven o'clock the same night we got our ropes and provisions together and set out along Les Ponts. We lost a good deal of time coaxing our lantern, which refused to burn properly, and we subsequently entangled ourselves among the irritating crevasses by which the eastern side of the Mer de Glace is intersected. We then scrambled up the evil stones of the lateral moraine on to the slopes beneath the Glacier de Charpoua. Here Venetz had to acknowledge that he was unwell. I took his knapsack and he struggled on for about half an hour more. It was then perfectly plain that he would not be able to make the ascent, and it was consequently altogether useless to let him drag himself up the atrocious slopes of loose stones we were ascending. We held a council of war, and Venetz was submitted to searching inquiries as to the nature, source, and extent of his maladies, and these appearing to be limited to a sick headache and bad indigestion, we decided that he might safely be left to make his way home at daybreak.

Burgener was, however, doubtful whether we were sufficiently strong to make the ascent by ourselves, the more so as it would be impossible to