ds and companions. There I stood,
in the most silent and complete solitude, amid a heaving ocean, as it
were, of snow, with the dark granite peaks rising up here and there out
of it, and increasing the appearance of bleakness and desolation which
reigned around. I shouted again and again, in the hopes that possibly
some of my companions might be within hearing; but my voice sounded
faint, and indeed, almost inaudible, it seemed, while no echoes reached
me from the surrounding rocks.

I did not, however, waste much time in hallooing, for instant action was
what was required. I felt very hungry, and that fact made me suppose
that I must have been some time in my icy cavern before I returned to a
state of consciousness. I took out my watch; it had stopped. It was
early in the morning when the Indians had attacked us. The sun had not
now risen any considerable height in the eastern sky. This made me feel
sure that one whole day, if not more, had passed since the catastrophe,
and that if I would preserve my life I must push on to overtake the
travellers. I had left my snow-shoes in the camp, so that I had great
difficulty often in making my way over the snow in some of the spots
where it lay most loosely. More than once I sank up to my shoulders,
and had it not been for my pike I should have had great difficulty in
scrambling out again. I had got on some way, and was congratulating
myself on having got over the worst of it, when I felt the snow giving
way under my feet. I tried to spring forward, but that only made me
sink down faster; down, down, I went in a huge drift. I had sunk to my
middle; then the snowy mass rose to my shoulders, and, to my horror, I
found it closing over my head. Though I knew if I went lower I might
struggle on for some time, yet that death would be equally certain in
the end. My feelings were painful in the extreme. I could not get my
pole across above me, but I succeeded in shoving it down below my feet,
and, to my infinite relief, after I had made several plunges, it struck
the point of a rock, or a piece of ice. I kept it fixed there with all
the strength I could command, and pressing myself upwards got
sufficiently high to throw myself flat on the snow and to scramble
forward. This I did for some distance, holding my staff with both hands
before me. It was not a pleasant way of making progress, but it was the
only safe one.

At length I got into the main pass, where the snow