| Show v AN ADVENTURE IN THE ALPS professor tyndall sends to the london ahnes a narrative of a rather exciting adventure in the alps on the ad of july he and two friends with a couple of guides jenni and walter ascended the Montera the ascent was accod accomplished 1 s hed 8 safely but not the descent which was a s ma made mado de along the Montera di glacier neier acler r we at length reached the point at which it was necessary 1 to quit our worn porn mornings ings track and immediately afterwards got upon some steep rocks which were rendered slippery here and there by the water that trickled over them to our right was a broad co coulter bouller uller which was once filled with snow but this had been melted and re frozen so as to expose a sloping wall of ice lee wo we were all tied together at this time in the following order jenni led I 1 came next then my friend H ail an intrepid mountaineer mount Alneer aineen then his friend L and allo last of all the guide walter after descending the rocks for a time jenni turned and asked irne line me whether I 1 thought it better to adhere to them or to try the lee ice sloping to our right I 1 pronounced in favor odthe of the rock but he seemed to misunderstand ume ime me and turned towards the co coulter uller he cut steps reached the snow and ulese ilese descended ended carefully along it all following him apparently in good order after a little time lie he stopped stopped turned and looked up upwards at t the le three last amen he said something about kee hee keeping p ing carefully in in the tracks adding that a false step might detach an ail avalanche the word was scarcely uttered when I 1 heard the sound of a fall behind me then a rush and in the twinkling of an eye my two friends and their guide all apparently entangled together whirled past me I 1 suddenly planted myself to resist their but in an Ins instant tantI I 1 was in their wake for their impetus was ir A moment more and jenni was whirling away and thus all five of i 1 Us found ourselves ridin riding down with un controllable contro lable speed oil on the back of an ail avalanche amell a single slip had originated when thrown throb n down by the jerk of the rope I 1 turned promptly on mylace and drove my baton through the moving snow seeking to anchor it inthe ico ice underneath I 1 had held it firmly thus for fora a few seconds when I 1 game bame ame into collision with some obstacle and was rudely tossed through the theair air je jenni ani at the same time being shot down upon me both of us here lost our batons we had in fact been carried oyer a crevasse had lilt hit its lewer edge our great velocity causing us to pitch Q beyond it I 1 was quite bewildered for a moment and immediately righted myself an and could sae see those in front of me half buried in the snow and bulted along from side to side by the ruts among which they were passing suddenly amoni I 1 saw them tumbled avei over by a lurch of the avalanche and immediately afterwards found myself imitating their motion this was caused by a second crevasse jenni knew of its ex istance and plunged right into it a brave and j manful apt act but for the time unavailing vile is ds over thirteen stone in weight ani and and he thought that by jumping into futo the chasm a strain might be put upon the rope sufficient to check the motion he was vas however violently jerked out of the the fissure and an I 1 almost squeezed to death by the pressure of the rope A long slope was below us which led directly down where tho glacier sud suo suddenly denly fell into a declivity of ice at the base of this declivity the glacier was cut by a series of profound chasms and towards these we were now rapidly borne the three forward men rode upon the forehead of the avalanche and were at times almost immersed in the snow but the moving layer was thinner 13 behind elli nd and jenni rose incessantly and with desperate energy drove his feet into the firmer substance underneath his voice shouting halt halt was the only one heard during the de descent scent dicent A kind of condensed memory such as that described by people who have narrowly escaped drowning took possession of me and I 1 thought and reasoned with preternatural clearness as 1 I rushed along our start moreover was too sudden and the excitement to too great reat to permit of the development of ferror terror the slope at one place became less steel steep the speed visibly slackened and we thought we were coming to rest the ava avalanche lanelle however crossed the brow w which hith terminated this gentler slope and regained its motion here H threw his arm around his friend all hope for the time being extinguished while I 1 grasped my belt and struggled for a moment to detach myself find ing this difficult I 1 resumed the tile pull upon the rope my bly share in the work I 1 fear fearl infinitesimal but jennis powerful strain made itself felt feit feltar at last aided probably by a silent change of inclination lie he brought the whole to rest within in a short distance of the chasms over which had we preserved our speed speed a few seconds would have carried us none of us suffered serious damage H emerged from the snow WI with th his forehead bleeding but the wound was superficial jenni had a bit of flesh removed from his head by a collision against a stone the pressure of the rope had li id left black welts on my arms and we all experienced a ti tingling anglin sensation igli over the hands like t that h a t produced produced b by incipient frost bite which continue continued for several days |
