as
difficult, and consequently as slow and as replete with stoppages, I
might eventually have reached the summit--unless first frozen. But
unluckily for me, these occasions of halting soon ceased; for the snow
became so loose, as to present no obstacle excepting the necessity of
sinking to the knees at every step. The line of march lay up long slopes
of snow; nothing could ever be discovered but a waste of snow ascending
in a steep inclination before us; no crevice gave us pause; there was
nothing to vary the toil or the pain except that as fatigue crept on,
and nature began to discriminate between the stronger and the weaker,
our line was no longer continuous, but broken into parties, which, of
course, rendered the position of the hindermost more dispiriting. The
rarity of the atmosphere now began to affect us; and as the disorder
resulting from this cause was more impartial than the distribution of
muscular activity, our condition was, for a short time, almost
equalized; even Mr. Bosworth felt violent nausea and headache; while I
only felt, in addition to the distress of increasing weakness, the taste
or scent of blood in the mouth, as if it were about to burst from the
nostrils. We thus reached the Grand Plateau--a long field of snow in the
bosom of the highest pinnacles of the mountain--which, being nearly
level, was much less distressing to traverse than the previous slopes;
but just before the commencement of the next ascent, which rose in a
vast dim curve, the immediate occasion of my failure occurred. Mr.
Bosworth, who was in advance, turned back to inform me that my son was
so much affected by the elevation, that his guides thought it necessary
that he should return. We halted till we were joined by him and his
guides, on two of whom he was leaning, and who explained that he was
sick and faint, and wished to lie down for a few minutes, to which they
would not consent, as, if he should fall asleep on the snow, he might
never awake. The youth himself was anxious to proceed--quite satisfied,
if he might only rest for a very little time, he could go on--but they
shook their heads; and as their interests and wishes were strongly
engaged for our success, I felt it was impossible to trifle with such a
decision. I could not allow him to return without me; and therefore
determined at once to abandon the further prosecution of the adventure;
a determination which I should not else have formed _at that moment_,
but which I