Turf and solid rock are much the best substances for the rope to run
over. In the Faroes, they tar the ropes excessively; they are absolutely
polished with tar. Good ropes are highly valued. In St. Kilda, leather
ropes are used: they last a lifetime, and are a dowry for a daughter. A
new rope spins terribly.

Leaping Poles.--In France they practise a way of crossing a deep brook by
the help of a rope passed round an overhanging branch of a tree growing
by its side. They take a run and swing themselves across, pendulum
fashion. It is the principle of the leaping-pole, reversed.

The art of climbing difficult places.--Always face difficult places; if
you slip, let your first effort be to turn upon your stomach, for in
every other position you are helpless. A mountaineer, when he meets with
a formidable obstacle, does not hold on the rock by means of his feet and
his hands only, but he clings to it like a caterpillar, with every part
of his body that can come simultaneously into contact with its roughened
surface.

Snow Mountains.--Precautions.--The real dangers of the high Alps may be
reduced to three:--1. Yielding of snow-bridges over crevices. 2. Slipping
on slopes of ice. 3. The fall of ice, or rocks, from above. Absolute
security from the first is obtainable by tying the party together at
intervals to a rope. If there be only two in company, they should be tied
together at eight or ten paces apart. Against the second danger, the rope
is usually effective, though frightful accidents have occurred by the
fall of one man, dragging along with him the whole chain of his
companions. Against the third danger there is no resource but
circumspection. Ice falls chiefly in the heat of the day; it is from
limestone cliffs that the falling rocks are nearly always detached. When