Page:My Climbs in the Alps and Caucasus.djvu/342

Rh, we turned to the cliff, and were soon engaged in really serious work. Ice-glazed rocks, rotten slopes of stones only held in position by a cement of ice and snow, were alternated by steep slabs that tested my leader's skill to the utmost. Nearing the ridge we reached an ice slope, up which we had to hew our way with much toil and a great expenditure of time.

A huge cornice overhung the glacier to the north-east of the ridge, and it was with much trepidation that I advanced, carefully held by Zurfluh low down on the other slope, to its very crest, so that we might obtain some knowledge of our whereabouts and the capabilities of our ridge. My position was superb; through a big hole in the cornice I could look down three thousand feet or more on to the vast unbroken glacier referred to above, whilst on every side the giant ridges stretched away below me to the regions of trees and grass-grown uplands. Far away to the south two cones of snow, a larger cone with a smaller one to the left, could have been naught else than Ararat itself. Never have I looked through clearer air, or been able to trace so distinctly each fold and buttress that bent and twisted the white lines of foam, marking the rushing torrents in the valleys deep below me.

Zurfluh, however, who does not usually appreciate the pleasures of noble scenery, and who failed to realise the extreme solidity of the cornice, or the