Show J A DREADFUL 7 s TH THREE M MEN r NON ON RA RAGGED E EDOS D OF NOTHING several hours houn I assed on a cuff with a lor larribie death in rheao ef second Do V by S 8 an all illustration of the dis comforti discomfort of a on the ragged edge of nothing the thai 1911 1 1 i lo 10 losing trig story etory from climbs in the new Z zealand 0 ILI it n d alps is afi excellent the author of the ork 11 A fitz fita gel oriald aid 1 r R 0 8 his bla guide and mr harper were surprised by darkness in IBL a position where it waa vas impossible tor for them to advance As AB it was equally impossible for them to spend the night where they were hanging to narrow ledges of rock covered with thin ice I 1 they were obliged to retrace steps a slow and painful process at last they reached a spot that might answer their purposed pur posea ledge soule boine fourteen feet long and eighteen inches broad on w V lit alch e it the three yuen men could just manage to ell 1311 it seemed to us as sheltered a place as any upon the slope but should there be any great fall of stones in the tha night I 1 feared that m we a should have but it ft small email chance of escape no sooner had we seated ourselves than we heard the omnibus whiz of falling stones this was as but the commencement of a cannonade that was vias kept up at intervals through out the night the rocks flew past us ua so close that at times me w e could almost feel the wind on our faces we never dared to eo much as to close an eye alt all night for fear of slipping into the abyss below tho the cold became intense the thermometer dropping twenty five degrees and ap most moat of our garments had been soaked in wading through the melting snow they froze hard harper took tooh off ills bla boots and placed ills ats feet in his knapsack so that had he be fallen lie he could not possibly have recovered himself also took oft off tile bis boots and sat upon them to keep them warm arin tor for the morning lest they should be frozen and he should fand himself unable to get into them again we did our best beat to keep up our aspli its by singing songs the most appropriate prop ato of at which seemed to be I 1 we W won t go home till morning there was no moon and the night was intensely dark though tho the weather meather was aas clear while the slight breezes from the southwest seemed to chill us to the bote bone after midnight we gradually fell silent and did not even talk while harper dozed tor for a moment cr two and nearly tumbled off I 1 had bad to catch hold of him and retain rny my grip till he could regain his bis balanca it then occurred to us that it we w spread one of the pieces of mackintosh sheeting 01 er our heads and light ed somo some candles beneath it we should b be e warmer we found the plan successful and kept on lighting candles so that we could warm our fingers at them and still remain seated in our cramped po athlon luckily ue ne had bad an ample supply and could continue to burn them till the dawn began to appear it seemed to us as if we had bad been seated for weeks on this ridge and when at last it became light enough toi foi us to avo wo we were so stiff that it was with difficulty that we gained our feet we now began making preparations tor for departure the rope was like an iron bar and our frozen clothes would not give to our motion harpers a boots were frozen so stiff slid that ho was obliged to cut them open and burn innumerable candle ends inside of them beffie he succeeded in getting them conf on I 1 bad kept mine on ell all night as I 1 knew how bow much trouble I 1 should have in ili putting them on again in the morning if I 1 took them oft off however was the very best of us ila all for his bis scheme of sitting on life boots and warming the them had worked akel most os admirably mir ably though during ill tho night ho he complained several times that tile tha nails in them were rather hard we were extremely stiff all of us and for some distance literally along Ilo however wever when the sun rose it gradually thawed us and we were abl to mako make better time |