de, who declared that there was no time to lose, I threw myself
on the snow, and would, had I been left alone, have been asleep in a
few moments.

It is customary for the few tourists who visit the Breche to take two
guides, for the purpose of crossing this glacier in safety; and I had
cause to regret my ignorance of the practice, for although I trod most
cautiously in the notches cut by my guide, yet my limbs were so weak,
that when about half-way across, I stumbled, and for a moment gave
myself up for lost. Happily, my guide was sufficiently near to grasp
my extended arms, and shouting: 'Prenez garde! prenez garde! Courage!
courage!' he sustained me until I recovered my balance. Then it was
that I became fully aware of the mistake I had committed in making
this excursion without previous training; and I admonished Jaques in
future, to give those who desired to scale the Breche fair warning of
the dangers and difficulties attendant upon the undertaking.

My escape was not rendered the less interesting by a story which my
guide related to me of an unfortunate traveller, who when his crampon,
by some accident, caught his trousers, lost his balance, and there
being no friendly hand to arrest him, in an instant sped down the
sloping ice with the speed of an avalanche, and was almost
instantaneously lost for ever.

It was here that Mr Paris, who was rash enough to attempt ascending to
the Breche without a guide, was obliged to give up the task. 'The
sight of this glacier,' he observes, 'was too appalling. I could not
summon sufficient resolution to attempt the passage, which was in
distance about a quarter of a mile, and wisely, I think, abandoned it.
To understand all its terrors, the place must be seen. Once slip, and
you are gone for ever, past all human aid: the death is too frightful
for contemplation.'

Bracing my shattered nerves for the occasion, I resumed my labour,
taking care, however, to hold my guide's hand; and thus moving slowly
and cautiously, I had at length the inexpressible satisfaction of
achieving the formidable passage of this terrible glacier. The rest of
the journey was comparatively easy, though the elevation--above 9000
feet--and the steepness were trying enough. But all sense of fatigue
forsook me when the huge portal--the tiny notch as seen from
Gedres--yawned in all its stern magnificence before me. It was a fit
reward for all my toil, and I felt that I would have willingly endured
even gre