Omaha daily bee., 1895-06-16

Himalayas is on such an immensely larger
scale. The precipces are higher, blacker
more sheer and more appalling The gla-
ciers are infinitely vaster. Even the Great
Aletsch glacier, with its thirteen miles of
Ice, is nothing compared with the Hispar and
Biafo glaciers, which between then took us
ten days to traverse, and sometimes for
twenty miles on stretch have great powders
piled upon their surface The ice falls are
sleeper, longer and more difficult. In
Switzerland, as you know, TO pass an ice fall,
however tortuous, is only an incident in a
long days climb. In the Karakorams 1t
sometimes took us whole day to ascend 100
yards, and even then we might find our way
barred by some unpassable crevasse. AS
for the ice falls at the head of the Baltoro
glacier, 1t took us three days to get from
the bottom to the top Of 1t, and we had to
make two camps in the middle of the Gre
vasses-the one at $4,000 and the other at
20, 900 feet above the sea-"
But 1t was by way of this Baltoro glacier
that Mr.. Conway made his big ascent, and
again l asked for Details and he pointed to
his fellow traveller, McCormick's picture, and
| told me all about 1t.
Here" he began, "is the head Of the ice
| fall, where our last camp was pitched, ana
here is the camp above the seracs, where
Mccormick sat to make his sketch Of the
mountain"
He said 1t, not after the manner of a man
| who was conscious Of having passed through
|
| of-fact straightforward tones OF man who
might direct you how to find your way from
| st. Paul's cathedral to the Strand. But
had heard Of these seracs before. McCor-
mick, who had no graduated education In
| seracs had told me OF them, and had filled
| in the details far more lurdly. He had
spoken Of the perilous position OF the tent
which stood upon a small plateau OF ice, with
| yawning precipices OF Ice on every side OF It,
| He had spoken of the horrible heat within
| ko hla pld xytth nd nf
| horrible sense OF sickness that overcame him
whenever he wasted tissue by exerton. He
| had even told me that the crevasses were sc
near at hand and the sides OF them so slip
perry that whenever man had occasion to- &c
| outside the tent for any purpose he had
| to be held tight by rope securely fastened
around his waist. But Mr.. Conway went
| straight ahead with his narrative as though
| such details of danger and discomfort were
| too Insignificant for a businesslike noun
| ing with the poker:
EIGHT HOURS MOUNTING 5000 FEET.
when we left the ice fall, which ran
further up the mountain side than the ice
falls usually do in Switzerland, the next steI
was to get on the ridge 1t was toler-
ably steep, but not hard going, as, for the
most part, we only had TO travel over snow
Then, when we had got upon the ridge, we
had to follow 1t. We could not keep upor
the crest, because II was heavily corniced
| to our left and II we had trodden on the
cornice II would certainly, sooner or later
have given way; so we had to keep along
little below the ridge, with Its crest on oul
left. The ascent was not very rapid, bu
II was blue ice all the way, covered only
with the thinnest possible crust of frozer
snow, crisp and sparkling in the sunlight
The sun beat upon our heads and roasted us
Before 1t rose our feet were nearly numbe.
and frost bitten. And, all the way aloni
that ridge, we had to cut with the ice a,
every step we took. Fortunately we haC
climbing irons, strapped to our boots lik,
skates, and this enabled us TO cut the step
smaller than would have been necessary /
we had been without them. Even as it was
however, we could not cut, on an average
more than two steps a minute, and so II tool
us about eight hours to climb 5000 feet. w
did II. however, and reached the top at
quarter to 8 in the afternoon. And theI
we rested and examined the guide Zurbrig
gems pulse with the sphygmograph."
AN ACCIDENT COMING DOWN.
tracngs. A man Of science who was look
they showed that Mr.. Conway's own hear
was in a weaker state than his guides. w
did net talk of that, however. but | mad
I haste to ask Mr.. Conway about the accl
: dent which | had heard had imperiled hi
party during the descent. With character
. istic British phlegm he made light Of tn
: incident and would not admit that his part
had ever been in peril.
1T was nothing at all, he said. IF Nc
, Cormick hadn't made picture OF it