Among the Celestials : vol.1 / Page 277 (Color Image)

0277	Among the Celestials : vol.1

CHAP. Ix.] A PERILOUS DESCENT. 231

further difficulties before us. We were at the

head of the rocky precipice, the face of which

we should have to descend to reach the ice-

slopes which extended to the glacier at the foot

of the pass. At such heights as those which

we had now reached, where the snow and ice

lie sometimes hundreds of feet thick, it is only

where it is very steep that the bare rock shows

through. The cliff we had now to descend

was an almost sheer precipice ; its only saving

feature was that it was rough and rugged, and

so afforded some little hold for our hands and

feet. Yet even then we seldom got a hold for

the whole hand or whole foot. All we gener-

ally found was a little ledge, upon which we

could grip with the tips of the fingers or side

of the foot. The men were most good to

me, whenever possible guiding my foot into

some secure hold, and often supporting it there

with their hands ; but at times it was all I

could do to summon sufficient courage to let

myself down on to the veriest little crevices

which had to support me. There was a con-

stant dread, too, that fragments of these ledges

might give way with the weight upon them ;

for the rock was very crumbly, as it generally

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