Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1900 edition. Excerpt: ...Castor and Pollux, Lyskamm and Monte Rosa, and, on another side, the Weisshorn rose to greet us, not in spirit, but in grandest form, here under Asia's sun in this far distant Himalayan world. They were all so noble, so godlike, that we felt like adding to Brunnhilda's poetic greeting, "Heil dir Sonne, Heil dir Licht," Heil euch ewigen Hohen I The coolies, after making night hideous with their lamentations, now, elated with the prospect of 8,000 feet of descent, forgot their mountain sickness and glissaded with tents, bags and yakdans down the long snow-fields in the most hilarious manner. The descent to Askole is long and tiresome, like that from most of the high Asiatic passes, but the views of the mountains at the foot of the Biafo and Baltoro glaciers, as the valley is ACROSS THE ASKOLE ROPE BRIDGE 101 approached, compensate for a lot of wear and tear. After eleven hours of hard marching, we reached, at sunset, the rope-bridge, which spans the two hundred and seventy foot wide Braldu river before Askole. We regarded it with some trepidation, as it hung in a long catenary, high over the water, with its three ropes made of twisted twigs placed in the form of an isosceles triangle, the lowest rope for the feet and the upper ones to be grasped by the hands and arms; but with camp to be pitched and darkness approaching, we did not stop to consider our nerves, which is perhaps the best way to act, when obliged to cross such aerial bridges. It is not a pleasant sensation, particularly about midway, to find one's self swaying on these slender structures over such turbulent, swiftly flowing currents, as the Himalayan snows produce, and, aside from the danger of falling through the bridge, one cannot escape the thought, what if one or all of...
