The Grenada gazette. (Grenada, Miss.) 1885-18??, 1886-02-06
IN THE CREVASSE.
An Adventurer AL But Ground
Between It's Horrid Jaws.

''The glacier will not be safe to-day
said the old guide, shaking his heat
gravely. There is a yellow mist owe
the cap of old Heilgen Alp, and tina
means a thaw."
"Well, and what of thatP" asked tho
younger man whom l had chosen TO,
my guide. Neither one days o one
months thaw is going to melt the Mel
de Glace.'
NO. said the old man, "but a thaw
sometimes splits the glacier into crew
asses. I've seen the Mer de Glaze as
full of cracks as the bottom of a dried.
up pond in summer. Many q good
fellow has lost his life at the bottom of
those chasms."
''lt's not a crack in the ice, nor a
crack in an old mans brain hat is 90
ing to scare Franz Berg said the
young man, laughing. I've been
guide here, boy and man, these fifteen
years, and I never heard of even a goat
being lost in a crevasse.n
"Well, well, have your W way"
muttered the old man, wisdom is
learned by experience. Happy for you
1T you live to profit by it,
l was somewhat disturbed by the old
guides ominous words. but not de-
tered from my original purpose. l
had come all the way from Geneva to
see the glacier, and it was not the
prophesyings of a doting old man that
was going to interfere with my object.
l had but one day to spare. The
weather was beautiful. The sky was
brilliantly blue, and the sn~ow-crowned
caps of the mountains sparkled like gi-
gantic prisms in the sun. l, for one
could not see the yellow mist to which
the old man had referred, and was
greatly inclined to attribute his warn
ing, as my guide had done, to a me-
grim of his old brain.
Our preparation, consisting of high
boots, shod with spikes, steel-tipped
slaves and a wicker flask of spirits
apiece, were soon complete. We set
out at ten in forenoon and by twelve
had reached the left bank of the great
ice river which we proposed to cross.
/ paused a moment awe-struck at the
magnificent spectacle. Imagine a gi-
gantic river, perhaps two miles broad,
whirling between vast snow-capped
hills, suddenly frozen to a slow, moving
torrent of ice. Vast heaps of snow lay
upon it and here and there masses of
rock. weighing tons, detached from
some gorge far up the impossible cliffs.
Very hear us a narrow fissurc or
cleft ran ~diagonally across the body of
the ice, the sides smooth as glass and
of a deep lustrous green, descending
sheer into impenetrable darkness.
Such a revasse as this, the guide said,
was always to be found i'll the glacier
and only the most ordinary care was
necessary to avoid ii.
We scrambled down upon the ice
and began to make our way across it.
to various distractions, such as
heaped-up snow or soft spots in the ice,
our progress was very slow. After an
hour of hard work we had not accom-
one-haf Of the distance. I sat
down upon a cube of rock to rest and
look about me.
A change had already taken place in
Lhe weather. The IL was obscured
by a dense, leaden-colored mist, and
the valley of the glacier itself seemed
to be choked with masses of whirling
vapor. My outside garments were wet,
and all around us the ice sent mp a
cold and benumbing steam.
AS l sat in a far from comfortable
frame of body and mind I was startled
BY a ~far-of, duh, booming sound, the
echoes of which seemed to be repeated
nterminably among the hills.
"What was thatp" l asked the guide.
"Most likely an avalanche on the
4eilgen Alp" he replied. "They are
falling there"
He was interrupted by a repetition of
he sound, much nearer to us, accom-
'anied by a tremendous shock that
eemed to shake the ice beneath Ms. I
ooked athim inquiringly, and observed
hat he was slightly pale.
"a %crevasse," he said, answering my
)ok with an air of unconcern that |
see was not wholly real. when
ice parts it makes q noise like n
1t is nothing. However, we {
ad better be moving. don't like the
'oks of this fog" i t
We arose and resumed our journey, c
le guide directing our course by occa- 1
onal glimpses of the Alps through the c
reaths of fog which every moment be- a
lme nor dense. We had not pro- t
'eded twenty steps, however, when u
Q guide suddenly paused and mo- "
'ned mt back. At that instant there I,