as far as I possibly could) sufficed to outweigh them; and, in a few
minutes, I felt resolved that, having made so important a discovery as a
pass into a country which was probably as valuable as that on our own
side of the ranges, I would follow it up and ascertain its value, even
though I should pay the penalty of failure with life itself. The more I
thought, the more determined I became either to win fame and perhaps
fortune, by entering upon this unknown world, or give up life in the
attempt. In fact, I felt that life would be no longer valuable if I were
to have seen so great a prize and refused to grasp at the possible
profits therefrom.

I had still an hour of good daylight during which I might begin my
descent on to some suitable camping-ground, but there was not a moment to
be lost. At first I got along rapidly, for I was on the snow, and sank
into it enough to save me from falling, though I went forward straight
down the mountain side as fast as I could; but there was less snow on
this side than on the other, and I had soon done with it, getting on to a
coomb of dangerous and very stony ground, where a slip might have given
me a disastrous fall. But I was careful with all my speed, and got
safely to the bottom, where there were patches of coarse grass, and an
attempt here and there at brushwood: what was below this I could not see.
I advanced a few hundred yards farther, and found that I was on the brink
of a frightful precipice, which no one in his senses would attempt
descending. I bethought me, however, to try the creek which drained the
coomb, and see whether it might not have made itself a smoother way. In
a few minutes I found myself at the upper end of a chasm in the rocks,
something like Twll Dhu, only on a greatly larger scale; the creek had
found its way into it, and had worn a deep channel through a material
which appeared softer than that upon the other side of the mountain. I
believe it must have been a different geological formation, though I