der, and whirled him down upon his side, thus preventing his
rolling overboard, which friendly action he took quite coolly.

The third descent was not a difficult one, nor the fourth; but when we
had climbed down about two hundred and fifty feet the rocks were so
glacially polished and water-worn that it seemed impossible to get any
farther. To our right was a crack penetrating the rock perhaps a foot
deep, widening at the surface to three or four inches, which proved to
be the only possible ladder. As the chances seemed rather desperate, we
concluded to tie ourselves together, in order to share a common fate;
and with a slack of thirty feet between us, and our knapsacks upon our
backs, we climbed into the crevice, and began descending with our faces
to the cliff. This had to be done with unusual caution, for the foothold
was about as good as none, and our fingers slipped annoyingly on the
smooth stone; besides the knapsacks and instruments kept a steady
backward pull, tending to overbalance us. But we took pains to descend
one at a time, and rest wherever the niches gave our feet a safe
support. In this way we got down about eighty feet of smooth, nearly
vertical wall, reaching the top of a rude granite stairway, which led to
the snow; and here we sat down to rest, and found to our astonishment
that we had been three hours from the summit.

After breathing a half-minute we continued down, jumping from rock to
rock, and, having by practice become very expert in balancing ourselves,
sprang on, never resting long enough to lose equilibrium, and in this
manner made a quick descent over rugged debris to the crest of a
snow-field, which, for seven or eight hundred feet more, swept down in a
smooth, even slope, of very high angle, to the borders of a frozen lake.

Without untying the lasso which bound us together, we sprang upon the
snow with a shout, and slid down splendidly, turning now and then a
somersault, and shooting out like cannon-balls almost to the middle of
the frozen lake; I upon my back, and Cotter feet first, in a swimming
position. The ice cracked in all directions. It was only a thin,
transparent film, through which we could see deep into the lake. Untying
ourselves, we hurried ashore in different directions, lest our combined
weight should be too great a strain upon any point.

With curiosity and wonder we scanned every shelf and niche of the last
descent. It seemed quite impossible that we could have come