Page:My Climbs in the Alps and Caucasus (1908).djvu/278

272 hewing of steps and an occasional wrestle with loose snow, we gained the well-swept avalanche groove, and were able to cut really reliable foothold in its icy floor.

The hum of one or two small fragments which spun merrily over our heads soon directed our thoughts and aspirations towards some rocks shutting in the ice slope a short distance on our right. A first effort to cross was, however, foiled by the layer of dangerous new snow lying on all the slope outside our well-brushed avalanche slide. Fifty feet higher up the snow seemed slightly more compact, besides which we were not so terribly near the edge of the great overhanging ice cliff. Though the actual peril may not be affected by the nearness of such a cliff, none the less the human mind is so constructed—at least mine is—that one feels much happier when a reasonably long slide would precede the final and concluding drop.

By much careful anchoring, and by treating the new snow as Isaac Walton advises the angler to treat the frog he is impaling, "use him as though you loved him," we got across without material risk. A sharp scramble up and round a precipitous corner brought us to a secure ledge, on which we promptly sat down to recover our wind and to indulge in a few minutes of well-earned repose. The sacrificial fires being lit, Collie, soothed by their pleasant restfulness, was fain to admit that even Ben Nevis