again."

"Well," said Mr. George, "we will; but let us first stop here a few
minutes to look at the Jungfrau."

The view of the Jungfrau was of course more commanding here than it was
down at the inn. So Mr. George and Rollo remained some time at their
resting-place gazing at the mountain and watching for avalanches. At
length they returned to the inn; and an hour or two afterwards they set
out on their journey to Grindelwald.

The reader will recollect that Grindelwald was the valley on the other
side of the Wengern Alp from Lauterbrunnen, and that our travellers,
having come up one way, were going down the other.[11]

The distance from the inn at the Wengern Alp to Grindelwald is seven or
eight miles. For a time the path ascends, for the inn is not at the
summit of the pass. Until it attains the summit it leads through a
region of hills and ravines, with swamps, morasses, precipices of rocks,
and great patches of snow scattered here and there along the way. At one
place Rollo met with an adventure which for a moment put him in
considerable danger. It was at a place where the path led along on the
side of the mountain, with a smooth grassy slope above and a steep
descent ending in another smooth grassy slope below. At a little
distance forward there was a great patch of snow, the edge of which came
over the path and covered it.

A heavy mist had come up just before Rollo reached this place, and he
had accordingly spread his umbrella over his head. He was riding along,
holding the bridle in one hand and his umbrella in the other, so that
both his hands were confined. Mr. George was walking at some distance
before. The guide, too, was a little in advance, for the path was too
narrow for him to walk by the side of the horse; and, as the way here
was smooth and pretty level, he did not consider it necessary that he
should be in very close attendance on Rollo.

Things being in this condition, the horse--when he came in sight of the
snow, which lay covering the path at a little distance before
him--concluded that it would be safer both for him and for his rider
that he should not attempt to go through it, having learned by
experience that his feet would sink sometimes to great depths in such
cases. So he determined to turn round and go back. He accordingly
stopped; and turning his head towards the grassy bank above the path and
his heels towards the brink on the other side, as horses always do when
they undertake such