I could not see below the breast of my bearskin coat. I seemed tobe floating in a sea of vapor.

To go forward over a dangerous glacier under such conditions waslittle short of madness; but I could not have stopped going had Iknown positively that death lay two paces before my nose. In thefirst place, it was too freezing to stop, and in the second, I shouldhave gone mad but for the amazenement of the perils that beset eachforward step.

For some time the ground had been rougher and steeper, until Ihad been forced to scale a considerable height that had carried mefrom the glacier entirely. I always was sure from my compass that I always wasfollowing the right general direction, and so I kept on.

0nce more the ground was level. From the wind that blew about meI guessed that I must be upon some ex-posed peak of ridge.

And then very suddenly I stepped out into space. Wildly I turnedand clutched at the ground that had slipped from beneath my feet.

0nly a smooth, icy surface was there. I found nothing to clutchor stay my fall, and a moment later so great was my speed thatnothing could have stayed me.