Page:My Climbs in the Alps and Caucasus.djvu/276

Rh At 2 a.m. the sleepers were awakened, the fire was lit, and a somewhat extensive breakfast consumed. Then the knapsack was overhauled and all surplus baggage ruthlessly ejected. These various proceedings consumed much time, and it was not till 3.15 a.m. that we left the hut and began the monotonous ascent of the moraine. Crossing the glacier just as the first signs of dawn became apparent, we once more reached the long bank of loose stones and struggled slowly upwards.

The advent of daylight was a good deal interfered with by the dense masses of vapour that filled the glacier basin and gave much effective aid to the powers of darkness and night. However, before we got much higher, the huge towers of unsubstantial mist were touched by glints of sunshine, and the last lingering gloom was put to flight. We hailed the lifting of the clouds as a good augury, and set ourselves more resolutely to breast the slope. Keaching the high glacier shelf close under the wall-like ridge extending from the Moine to the Verte, we halted for a quarter of an hour hoping that the swaying of the mists would enable us to see something of our mountain. But the great dark curtain clung steadfastly round it, and nothing was visible on that side. In the other direction, however, we had a marvellous vision of the Grandes Jorasses, half veiled in films of floating cloud. Far on high we could even see the lighter and loftier streamers sailing before a gentle