The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1897-07-25

plei The paveurs of nature mad lett
the road a tritie rough, that was all.
Suddenly we came upon a wide assure
stretched obliquely like the mouth of
a sole. Going glibly we learned a
small lesson of caution therefrom; six
PAGES, and we should have tumbled in.
We looked over fearfully. Here in,
truth, was real ice at last-green as
bottle-glass at the edges, and melting
into unfathomable depths of glowing
blue. In q moment, with shrek like
that of escaping steam, windy demon
leaped at us from underneath. 1t was
all of winter in breath 1t seemed
to shrivel the skin from our faces, the
flesh from our bones, We staggered
backwards.
Mon ami, mon ami cried Fidele,
my heart is a stone; my eyes are two
blisters of wateri''
We danced as the blood returned I'M
willing to our veins. 1t was minutes
before we could proceed. Afterwards
I learned that these hellish eruptions of
air betoken a change of temperature.
1t was coming then shortly in a dense
rainfall
about for way to circumambulate the
crevasse. Then we remarked that up
huge boulder of ice that had seemed
to block our path recent steps, or toe
holes, had been cut. In tWinkling
We We're over. F'idele-no, a woman
never falls For all this" she says,
shaking her head, II maintain that
guide here is a sinecurist."
Well, we made the passage safely,
and toiled up the steep loose moraine
beyond, to find the track over which
was harder than crossing the glacier.
But We did it, and struck the path
along the hillside, which leads by the
MauvaiS Pas the mauvaiS quart
d'heure) to the little cabaret called the
Chapeau. This tavern, too, was shut
and dismal 1t did not matter; we
sat like sparrows on a railing, and
munched our egg sandwiches and
drank our wine in sort of glorious
stupefaction. Right opposite us was
the vast glacier fall, whose crashing
foam was towers and parapets of ice,
that went over and rolled into the val
ley below, a ruin of thunder. Far be-
yond, where the mouth of the gorge
spread out Uttered with monstrous de-
struction, we saw the hundred threads
of the glacier streams collect into a
single rope of silver, that went drawn
between the hills, highway of water.
1t was all majestic panorama of gray
and pearly WhIte-the sky the tor
rents, the mountains; but the blue and
rusty green Of the stone pines, flung
abroad in hanging woods and coppices,
broke up and distributed the infinite
serenity ofsthe snowfields.
Presently, having drunk deep of rich
content, we rose to retrace our steps;
for. spurred by vanity, we must be re-
turning the way we had come, to show
our confident experience of glaciers.
All went well. Actually we had
passed over near two-thirds of the ice
bed, when touch on my arm stayed
me, and ma ME looked into my eyes,
very comical and insolent. Little
cabbage" she said, will you not put
your new knowledge to account2"
But how, my soul?"
She laughed and pressed my arm to
her side. Her heart fiuttered like
nesting after its first flight. ITO rest
on the little prowess of a small adven-
ture! No, not Shall he who has
learned to swim be always content to
battle in shallow water?" 1 was
speechless as gazed on her. Behold,
them" she continued. 1--WE have OPP
posed ourselves to this problem of the
ice, and we have mastered it. See how
it rears itself to the Inaccessible peaks,
to reach which the poor innocents ex-
mend fharoc solves MET
But why should not one climb the
mountain by way of the glacier?"
'Fidele!" L gasped.
"Ah!" she exclaimed, nodding her
head; "but poor men, they are mules.
They spill their blood on the scaling
ladders when the town-gate is open"
Again I cried, .;Ffdelei"
But, yes" he said, cit needs a wom-
an to see. It is but 2 o'clock. Let us
ascend the glacier. like a staircase: and
presently we shall stand upon the
summit of the mountain. Those last
little peaks above the ice can be of no
Importance"
1 was touched, astounded by the sub
Unity of her idea. Had no one, then,
ever thought of this before?
We began the ascent. I swear we
must have toiled upwards half a mile,
when the catastrophe took place. 1t
was raining then, a dense, small mist,
and the ice was as if it had been
creased. We were proceeding with in
finite care, arm in arm, tucked close
together. A little doubt, I think, was
beginning to Cypress US. We could
move only with such caution and diff
Guilty, and there were noises, sounds
like the clapping of great hands, in
those rocky attics above us. Then
there would come a slamming report,
as if the window of the unknown had
been burst open by demons; and the
means of the lost would issue, surging
down upon the world These thun-
ders, as we were afterwards told, are
caused by the splitting of the ice when
there comes 9 fall in the barometer
Then the glacier would yawn like a
sliced junket. My faith, what a SINH
lie! But, again the point of view, my
friend
All in a moment, I heard a little
cluck. I looked down. Alas, the fine
spirit was obscuredl Fidele was weep
ing. "Chut, chut!" I exclaimed in
CONSERVATION. I'VE will go back at
once"
She struggled to smile, the poor mig
nome. 1T is only that my knees are
sick" she said piteously. 1 took her in
my strong arms tenderly. We had
paused on a ridge of hard snow Then
came a tearing clang, an enormous
sucking sound as of wet lips opening
The snow sank under our feet MY
ch,
vulsively. 1t happened in an instant,
before one couId lean aside The he'd