accompanied by an upward surge,
showed that she had taken the ground, or rather the snow-bank. The
engines were then stopped, and the grip-anchors brought into requisition
to secure her in her somewhat precarious berth.

"Well, here we are," exclaimed the baronet; "and the next thing, I
suppose, is to land and commence our climb without loss of time. What a
wild-looking spot it is, to be sure; if I were to stand looking at it
long I believe I should lose my nerve and shirk the task."

"Better not look at it any longer, then, until we can contemplate the
prospect from the peak away up aloft there," remarked the practical
Mildmay. "But," he continued, "I don't half like the idea of going out
upon that sloping slippery surface of frozen snow that the ship has
grounded upon; a single slip or false step and away one would go over
the edge, to bring up, perhaps, on a rock a thousand feet below. I
shall hook on the rope-ladder, and endeavour to make a start from yonder
naked spur of rock."

The others also seemed to think this the wisest plan, and in a few
minutes they were making their way cautiously down the rope-ladder one
after the other, the baronet, an experienced mountaineer, leading, and
Mildmay bringing up the rear.

The adventurers soon found that their task was likely to be a great deal
more difficult and hazardous than they had at all contemplated. The
snow-bank upon which the _Flying Fish_ rested proved to be the only even
approximately level spot at that elevation; the rocks rising almost
sheer above them everywhere, with only an occasional crevice here and
there by way of foothold, and in many places the precipice was coated
with treacherous frozen snow, sometimes tenacious enough to afford a
momentary support, but more often crumbling away beneath the weight of
the body. Slowly and steadily, however, they worked their way upward--
now occupying perhaps five minutes to advance as many feet, and anon
hitting upon a favourable spot where twenty or thirty feet might be
gained in a single minute. At length, after a toilsome and hazardous
climb of more than an hour's duration, the baronet found himself
clinging to a slender pinnacle of rock about seven feet high and four
feet in diameter, upon the top of which he next moment triumphantly
seated himself. The colonel, the professor, and Mildmay speedily
followed, and there they sat, undoubtedly the first human beings who had
ever reached the topmost pinnacl