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descend: such an attempt What could we do? In Close by was a glacier;

We dared not attempt to was certain to end fatally. a moment we were resolved. once on that we would be safe. Some way—we know no way of explaining how we got there in time to escape from the pressing danger, and in time to watch the flight of missiles shot out by the mountain. It resembled in sound a continued cannonade, while the din lasted; and then the noise and clatter as suddenly stopped, and the old silence once more reigned on the mountain side--a silence only disturbed by the trickling noise of the mountain stream.

Now we determined to advance in silence; not a word was spoken. If we required to communicate our wishes we made signs to one another, using the greatest caution not to disturb the mountain side again. Following in single file, one track served for both. Here we laboured upwards with difficulty. Once, when we found our progrèss impeded by a projecting ledge, we were forced to go down a little way, and going down even a little was a work of severe toil. After a six hours' climb, we sit quietly down for a short rest, and to eat a morsel. A draught of the cold pure water was to us most deliciously refreshing. Falling in a reverie, I pull unconsciously a bit of paper from my pocket, stored as it is with broken

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VIEW FROM THE PEAK BETWEEN ICY FIORD AND WIDDIE BAY.

Page 252,

A LOVE-LETTER.

biscuit and tobacco. It is a letter.

253

How long it has

lain there, or who it is intended for, we cannot imagine.

Long since the envelope has been frayed away, and become tattered; the address, if ever it had any, is no longer decipherable. The note it contained is safe enough, but somewhat torn. It began, “My dearest," and wound up with "from your own fond love." What else it contained we must not say, but it brought back tender thoughts of home and friends, and we felt it might have been for our reading, and we put it away carefully, and once more turned to our task. One long hour's toil, and at last we sat astride the high peak. The enchantment of the scene forbids any attempt at description; and the vague feeling of insecurity, as we looked down from our giddy height upon the steep mountain side, made us rather think of our safety than linger there with so much danger pressing around us. The cold, too, which we could not feel in our ascent, now began to warn us that if it once got possession of our limbs, it could not easily be shaken off, as we had learned by experience. So, without remaining one minute longer than the time demanded while we satisfied ourselves as to the problem that brought us there, we dismounted, and began slowly to pick our downward steps. The steep places on a mountain of this cha

racter are exceedingly difficult to descend, but we overcame the difficulties, and arrived at the schooner in time to see all hands busily at work. For during our absence the ice had shifted, and, drifting down and across the schooner's bows, her position had at once to be altered, and to do this all hands had been engaged upon her during the night. We were glad, then, to find that good fellow the cook had not forgotten us -far from it. "It's steaming 'ot, sir! Been waiting for you, sir, for the last five hours!"

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