Page:My Climbs in the Alps and Caucasus.djvu/351

298 itself in picturesque and recumbent attitudes, and watched his proceedings with interest. Gradually, as we recovered our wind, we began to perceive the vanity, not to say chilliness, of this coarse of action, or rather inaction, and we, in consequence, deputed the Tartar, who always enjoyed a little addition to the day's work, to see the interpreter sufficiently far on his way down to be out of all risk or danger. Zurfluh and I then tramped steadily towards the pass. Before a great time we were overtaken by the Tartar, who reported that the interpreter had quickly recovered so soon as his feet were turned towards the valley.

At 10 a.m. we reached our pass, and saw that though the wind had driven every vestige of mist and fog from the northern slopes, the whole of Suanetia was a sea of matted cloud, out of which the great peaks towered into the sunshine. The wind was terribly cold, so we plunged at once into the damp, heaving vapour below us. It soon became apparent to a fatigued Herr that we were going up hill instead of down. Zurfluh, after I had made sundry protests of continually increasing strength, admitted this fact. He appeared, however, to think that in this topsy-turvy country, where all things go by contraries, that very possibly the best way down was to walk up-hill. My muscles protested against this doctrine, and we retraced our steps some distance. Further investigations showed that by going to the north-