Page:The journal of the Royal Geographic Society of London. Volume 34, 1864. (IA s572id13663720).pdf/239

Rh took some time to collect enough of these to form a flooring. This serves to keep off the cold; and as driving pegs was impossible, they served to tie the ropes to. The smallest patch of rock on which to put a tent would have been welcome, but such was not to be found. The mountains rose from the glacier in sheer cliffs. It was a case of a night on the ice, and no help for it. After sundown the cold became very severe. The coolies were not able to sleep the whole night through; for as our fuel had to be carried with us, no fires could he afforded except for cooking. We all went to rest early, and did not turn out till the sun showed over the immense cliffs above us, which was not till about nine o’clock.

Leaving camp, and taking with me eight men with ropes and other appliances, we started up the glacier, which is here about 1 mile broad, with a slope of about 8°. For the first 3 miles the crevasses were broad and deep in places only, and we could avoid them by making detours. They soon became more numerous, and were ugly things to look into, much more so to cross—going down into darkness, between walls garnished with magnificent green icicles from 6 to 20 feet long, and of proportionate thickness, looking like rows of great teeth ready to devour one. I tried with our ropes to sound the depths of some of these fissures, but all of them tied together only made up 162 feet, which was not long enough. The snow lay up to the edges of the crevasses, and travelling became so insecure that we had to take to the ropes, and so, like a long chain of criminals, we wound our way along. In this mode we moved much faster, each man taking his run and clearing even broad crevasses, if they crossed the direction we were travelling. The snow was about 1 foot deep, and hard when we started; but as the day advanced it became soft, and walking more laborious; besides this it would every now and then break and let us down to the hard ice below. The larger crevasses revealed themselves, but the surface snow hid all the smaller ones, and hence a feeling of insecurity. I kept some coolies ahead feeling the way, by probing the snow with the long poles we had brought with us; so our progress was provokingly slow. Under the pass the breadth of this ice-basin is two miles, with an undulating surface; small glaciers bring down their tributaries to it out of every ravine, and the loud reports of the snow falling from the cliff's around was heard unceasingly.

In spite of difficulties we had got on favourably till within a mile of the pass, when the clouds, which had been gathering fast, began to look so threatening that I thought it best to take the opinions of the men with me; and, guided by their experience, I gave up the idea of proceeding further. By the time the fire was lighted, and the boiling-point ascertained (which gave 182·8, air 42, cor-