leaped, and no bridge was to be found. The
movements of a glacier cause the continual shifting of its parts, so
that, although rugged or smooth spots are always sure to be found at the
same parts of the glacier each year, there is, nevertheless, annual
variety in minute detail. Hence the most expert guides are sometimes
puzzled as to routes.

The crevasse in question was a new one, and it was Antoine's first
ascent of Mont Blanc for that year, so that he had to explore for a
passage just as if he had never been there before. The party turned to
the left and marched along the edge of the chasm some distance, but no
bridge could be found. The ice became more broken up, smaller crevasses
intersected the large one, and at last a place was reached where the
chaos of dislocation rendered further advance impossible.

"Lost your bearin's, Antoine?" asked Captain Wopper.

"No; I have only got into difficulties," replied the guide, with a quiet
smile.

"Just so--breakers ahead. Well, I suppose you'll 'bout ship an' run
along the coast till we find a channel."

This was precisely what Antoine meant to do, and did, but it was not
until more than an hour had been lost that a safe bridge was found.
When they had crossed, the configuration of the ice forced them to adopt
a route which they would willingly have avoided. A steep incline of
snow rose on their right, on the heights above which loose ice-grags
were poised as if on the point of falling. Indeed, two or three tracks
were passed, down which, probably at no distant period, some of these
avalanches had shot. It was nervous work passing under them. Even
Antoine looked up at them with a grave, inquiring glance, and hastened
his pace as much as was consistent with comfort and dignity.

Soon after this the sun began to rise, and the upper portions of the
snow were irradiated with pink splendour, but to our travellers he had
not yet risen, owing to the intervening peaks of the Aiguille du Midi.
In the brightening light they emerged upon a plain named the Petit
Plateau, which forms a reservoir for the avalanches of the Dome du
Goute. Above them rose the mountain-crest in three grand masses,
divided from each other by rents, which exposed that peculiar stratified
form of the glacier caused by the annual bedding of the snow. From the
heights, innumerable avalanches had descended, strewing the spot where
they stood with huge blocks of ice and masses of rock.

Threading