I might almost say,--until it was finished. Although they were
in no want of any thing, and might have lived their lives out in this
place, yet the thought that they were imprisoned--cut off from all
fellowship with mankind--weighed heavily upon their spirits, and not an
hour was wasted in idle amusement. The whole of their time was given up
to that which engrossed all their thoughts--the construction of the
bridge--that link, which was wanting to unite them once more with the
world, and free them from their lonely captivity.

They were a whole month in getting their bridge ready; which, after all,
consisted only of a single pole of about six inches in diameter, and
better than a hundred feet in length. It was nothing more than two
slender pine-trees spliced together by means of rawhide thongs. But
then these trees had to be shaved down to a nearly uniform thickness,
and this had to be done with the small hatchet and knives; and the wood
had to be charred by fire until it was quite dry and light; and the
splicing had to be made with the greatest neatness and strength, so that
there would be no danger of its yielding under a weight; and, moreover,
a great many ropes had to be twisted, and many animals had to be
captured and killed, to obtain the materials for these ropes; and other
apparatus had to be made--so that the getting that bridge ready was a
good month's work for all hands.

At the end of a month it was ready; and now behold it in the gorge of
the glacier, and lying along the snowy surface of the ice, one end of it
within a few feet of the crevasse! Thither they have transported it,
and are just preparing to put it in its place.

The first thought that will strike you, will be how that piece of timber
is to be placed across that yawning chasm. It is quite long enough to
reach across--for they calculated that before making it--and there are
several feet to lap over at each end; but how on earth is it to be
extended across? If any one of the party was upon the opposite side,
and had a rope attached to the end of the pole, then it would be easy
enough to manage it. But as there could be nothing of this kind, how
did they intend acting? It is evident they could not push it across
before them; the end of such a long pole would naturally sink below the
horizontal line before reaching the opposite side; and how was it to be
raised up? In fact, as soon as they should push it a little more than
half its leng