face of our hill,
almost to its summit, lay a tongue of snow, pressed to the consistency
of ice and spotted with boulders that had lodged there. The peak itself
was torn and shattered, so that it revealed great gleaming surfaces
and pits, in which glittered mica, or some other mineral. The vast gulf
behind was half filled with the avalanche and its debris. But for
the rest, it seemed as though nothing had happened, for the sun shone
sweetly overhead and the solemn snows reflected its rays from the sides
of a hundred hills. And we had endured it all and were still alive; yes,
and unhurt.

But what a position was ours! We dared not attempt to descend the mount,
lest we should sink into the loose snow and be buried there. Moreover,
all along the breadth of the path of the avalanche boulders from time to
time still thundered down the rocky slope, and with them came patches of
snow that had been left behind by the big slide, small in themselves,
it is true, but each of them large enough to kill a hundred men. It
was obvious, therefore, that until these conditions changed, or death
released us, we must abide where we were upon the crest of the hillock.

So there we sat, foodless and frightened, wondering what our old friend
Kou-en would say if he could see us now. By degrees hunger mastered all
our other sensations and we began to turn longing eyes upon the headless
body of the yak.

"Let's skin him," said Leo, "it will be something to do, and we shall
want his hide to-night."

So with affection, and even reverence, we performed this office for the
dead companion of our journeyings, rejoicing the while that it was not
we who had brought him to his end. Indeed, long residence among peoples
who believed fully that the souls of men could pass into, or were risen
from, the bodies of animals, had made us a little superstitious on this
matter. It would be scarcely pleasant, we reflected, in some future
incarnation, to find our faithful friend clad in human form and to hear
him bitterly reproach us for his murder.

Being dead, however, these arguments did not apply to eating him, as we
were sure he would himself acknowledge. So we cut off little bits of
his flesh and, rolling them in snow till they looked as though they were
nicely floured, hunger compelling us, swallowed them at a gulp. It was a
disgusting meal and we felt like cannibals: but what could we do?

CHAPTER V

THE GLACIER

Even that day came to an end at l