could be
seen. The clouds on the snowy surface and the light electrified air
gave the eye only optical illusions. The outline of every object was
topsy-turvy and dim. The large stones that I thought to step on
were not there; and, when apparently passing others, I bumped into
them. Several times I fell headlong by stepping out for a drift and
finding a depression.

In the midst of these illusions I walked out on a snow-cornice that
overhung a precipice! Unable to see clearly, I had no realization of
my danger until I felt the snow giving way beneath me. I had seen the
precipice in summer, and knew it was more than a thousand feet to the
bottom! Down I tumbled, carrying a large fragment of the snow-cornice
with me. I could see nothing, and I was entirely helpless. Then, just
as the full comprehension of the awful thing that was happening swept
over me, the snow falling beneath me suddenly stopped. I plunged into
it, completely burying myself. Then I, too, no longer moved downward;
my mind gradually admitted the knowledge that my body, together with
a considerable mass of the snow, had fallen upon a narrow ledge and
caught there. More of the snow came tumbling after me, and it was a
matter of some minutes before I succeeded in extricating myself.

When I thrust my head out of the snow-mass and looked about me, I was
first appalled by a glance outward, which revealed the terrible height
of the precipice on the face of which I was hanging. Then I was
relieved by a glance upward, which showed me that I was only some
twenty feet from the top, and that a return thither would not be very
difficult. But if I had walked from the top a few feet farther back,
I should have fallen a quarter of a mile.

One of my snowshoes came off as I struggled out, so I took off the
other shoe and used it as a scoop to uncover the lost web. But it
proved very slow and dangerous work. With both shoes off I sank
chest-deep in the snow; if I ventured too near the edge of the ledge,
the snow would probably slip off and carry me to the bottom of the
precipice. It was only after two hours of effort that the shoe was
recovered.

When I first struggled to the surface of the snow on the ledge, I
looked at once to find a way back to the top of the precipice. I
quickly saw that by following the ledge a few yards beneath the
unbroken snow-cornice I could climb to the top over some jagged
rocks. As soon as I had recovered the shoe, I started round the led