True Tales of Mountain Adventures

it seemed impossible they could survive. The two plucky mountaineers who have competed in an involuntary race to the bottom of a froze

ain of Mont Blanc. The Revs. Leslie Stephen, Charles Hudson, and Messrs Tuckett, Mather, and Birkbeck were the travellers, while in add

sad to think that, only four years later, this capable and brave mou

nd is just a gap in the chain of peaks which runs south-west from Mon

n to leave us for a few minutes, though his departure was not remarked at the time. When we discovered his absence, Melchior followed his footsteps, and I went after him, and, to our dismay, we saw the tracks led to the edge of the ice-slope, and then suddenly stopped. The conclusion was

; and to our dismay we presently saw him gradually moving downwards-then he stopped-again he moved forwards and again-he was on the brink of the crevasse; but we could do nothing for him. At length he slipped down upon the slope of snow which bridged the abyss. I looked anxiously to see if it would support his weight, and, to my relief, a small black speck continued visible. This removed my immediate cause of apprehension, and after a time he moved clear of this frail support down to the point where we afterwards joined him. Bennen was first in the line, and after we had descended some

rt of the back, and part of the ribs, together with some from the nose and forehead. He had not lost much blood, but he presented a most ghastly spectacle of bloody raw flesh. This, added to his great prostration, and our consciousness of the distance and difficulties which separated him from any bed, rendered the sight most trying. He nev

hen he came to a halt on the snow, and was ignorant as to whether we saw, or could reach him, he experienced deep anguish of mind in the prospect of a lingering death. Happily, however, the true Christian princ

ad had the boards made for it, and without them the runners (which, tied together, served me as an alpenstock) would have been useless. Two or three attempts were made before I could get the screws to fit the holes in the boards and runners, and poor Melchior,

e was difficulty in getting good hold of the sledge, and every five or six steps one of the bearers plunged so deeply in the snow that we were obliged

nt of skin which was destroyed, and I felt that every quarter of an hour save

meet the wounded man, and more men beyond to help in carrying him. The chief part of the transport was done by the three great guides, Melchoir, Bennen, and Perren, and was often over "abrupt slopes of rock, which to an ordinary walker would have app

he guides, where they were able to make poor Mr Birkbeck more comfortable before undertaking the rest of the journey, warming his feet and wrapping him in blankets. Fo

he received, Mr Birkbeck made a good recovery, though,

beck finally came to a standstill is 9328 feet; so the distance he fell is, in perpendicular height, 1767 feet." As part of the slope would be at a gentle angle, one may believe that the slip was over something like a mile of surface! Mr Hudson continues:-"During the intervening three

tial arrangements, by the combination of wh

cier, enabled us to take an easier and much quicker

, without which we could not have got him down

we should not have got the telegram sent to Geneva; and a few hours'

there been wind or absence of sun, the cold might

of a sledge, without which it would have be

down to St Gervais, and afterwards in attending upon him, and that was, his perfect calmness and