which would not be
concealed. I experienced slight attacks of nausea, and a depression
which I sought to conquer by rising abruptly and giving the signal of
departure. I was forced to change my boots, for those I had worn the
day before were in shreds.

"About three o'clock in the morning we took leave of the hospitable
cavern, but it was not without difficulty we crossed the precipices
which frowned before us, and for the first time had to employ our long
ladder. We supported it against the side of a chasm, the opposite brink
of which lay several hundred feet below. We descended backwards the
close and narrow steps, strictly forbidden to cast a downward glance.
Day advanced rapidly. The masses of snow which rose around us resembled
so many mountains piled upon other mountains. We were in the heart of
the vast solitudes of the Eiger, which seemed astonished by the echoes
of our steps. We often made use of the ladder. By the third time I had
recovered my liberty of action, and no longer descended backward, but
contemplating with an undefinable charm the gaping gulfs which vanished
in the obscure recesses of the glacier, bluer than the skies of the
East.

"The troop soon divided into two sections. We wore blue glasses to
protect our eyes from the dazzling brilliancy of the snow, which every
moment became less compact. Almer had even covered his face with a green
veil, but mine I found inconvenient, and resolutely exposed my skin to
the burning rays of the sun, which were reflected from the glittering
frozen surfaces, though the sun itself was hidden by clouds. The
fissures in the glacier were few and very narrow, and we employed the
ladder but once or twice in the immense plain of powdery snow which,
towards eight o'clock, opened before us. It was then that our real
sufferings began. The heat was excessive; walking, slow and very
difficult, for at each step we sank almost to our knees. Sometimes the
foot could find no bottom, and when we withdrew it we found a yawning
azure-tinted crevasse. The guides called such places _mines_, and feared
them greatly. The air every instant grew more rarefied; my mouth was
dry; I suffered from thirst, and to quench it swallowed morsels of snow
and kirsch-wasser, the very odour of which became at last insupportable,
though I was sometimes compelled to drink it by the imperative orders of
the guides.

"It had taken us long to cross the region of springs and torrents; not
so long to tra