the distance the wall of the South King's
Canon, and the granite point which Cotter and I had climbed a fortnight
before. But for the haze we might have seen the plain; for above its
farther limit were several points of the Coast Ranges, isolated like
islands in the sea.

The view was so grand, the mountain colours so brilliant, immense
snow-fields and blue alpine lakes so charming, that we almost forgot we
were ever to move, and it was only after a swift hour of this delight
that we began to consider our future course.

The King's Canon, which headed against our wall, seemed
untraversable,--no human being could climb along the divide; we had then
but one hope of reaching the peak, and our greatest difficulty lay at
the start. If we could climb down to the Kern side of the divide, and
succeed in reaching the base of the precipices which fell from our feet,
it really looked as if we might travel without difficulty among the
rocks to the other side of the Kern Valley, and make our attempt upon
the southward flank of the great peak. One look at the sublime white
giant decided us. We looked down over the precipice, and at first could
see no method of descent. Then we went back and looked at the road we
had come up, to see if that were not possibly as bad; but the broken
surface of the rocks was evidently much better climbing-ground than
anything ahead of us. Cotter, with danger, edged his way along the wall
to the east, and I to the west, to see if there might not be some
favourable point; but we both returned with the belief that the
precipice in front of us was as passable as any of it. Down it we must.

After lying on our faces, looking over the brink ten or twenty minutes,
I suggested that by lowering ourselves on the rope we might climb from
crevice to crevice; but we saw no shelf large enough for ourselves and
the knapsacks too. However, we were not going to give it up without a
trial; and I made the rope fast around my breast and, looping the noose
over a firm point of rock, let myself slide gradually down to a notch
forty feet below. There was only room beside me for Cotter, so I had him
send down the knapsacks first. I then tied these together by the straps
with my silk handkerchiefs, and hung them as far to the left as I could
reach without losing my balance, looping the handkerchiefs over a point
of rock. Cotter then slid down the rope, and, with considerable
difficulty, we whipped the noose off its resting-pla