n poured
floods of light on the snow, from the little crystals of which it shone
with prismatic colours, as though the place had been strewn with
diamonds. The spirit of levity was put to flight by this splendid
spectacle, and the feelings of the travellers were deepened to solemnity
when the guide pointed to a yawning crevasse into which, he said, three
guides were hurled by an avalanche in the year 1820. He also related
how, on one occasion, a party of eleven tourists perished, not far from
where they then stood, during a terrible storm, and how an English lady
and her guide were, at another time, lost in a neighbouring crevasse.

By this time all except the chief among the surrounding heights were
beginning to look insignificant by comparison, and the country assumed a
sort of rugged flatness in consequence of being looked down upon from
such an elevation. Passing the Grand Plateau they reached a steep
incline, which rose towards a tremendous ice-precipice. From the upper
edge of this there hung gigantic icicles. Up the incline they went
slowly, for the crust of the snow broke down at every step, and the
Captain, being heavy, began to show symptoms of excessive heat and
labouring breath, but he grew comparatively cool on coming to a
snow-bridge which had to be passed in order to get over a crevasse.

"It'll never bear my weight," he said, looking doubtfully at the frail
bridge, and at the blue gulf, which appeared to be a bottomless pit.

Antoine, however, thought it might prove strong enough. He patted the
snow gently, as on previous occasions of a similar kind, and advanced
with caution, while his followers fixed their heels in the snow, and
held tight to the rope to save him if he should break through. He
passed in safety, and the others followed, but new difficulties awaited
them on the other side. Just beyond this bridge they came to a slope
from which the snow had been completely swept, leaving the surface of
hard ice exposed. It was so steep that walking on it was impossible.
Antoine, therefore, proceeded to cut steps along its face. Two swings
of his ponderous mountain-axe were sufficient to cut each step in the
brittle ice, and in a few minutes the whole party were on the slope,
every man having a coil of the rope round his waist, while, with the
spike of his alpenstock driven firmly into the ice, he steadied himself
before taking each successive step.

There would have been no difficulty in cro