A Tramp Abroad — Volume 07 by Mark Twain
page 36 of 159 (22%)
page 36 of 159 (22%)
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Perhaps a strict average of the world might develop the fact
that where one in 1,000 of America's population dies, two in 1,000 of the other populations of the earth succumb. I do not like to make insinuations, but I do think the above statistics darkly suggest that these people over here drink this detestable water "on the sly." We climbed the moraine on the opposite side of the glacier, and then crept along its sharp ridge a hundred yards or so, in pretty constant danger of a tumble to the glacier below. The fall would have been only one hundred feet, but it would have closed me out as effectually as one thousand, therefore I respected the distance accordingly, and was glad when the trip was done. A moraine is an ugly thing to assault head-first. At a distance it looks like an endless grave of fine sand, accurately shaped and nicely smoothed; but close by, it is found to be made mainly of rough boulders of all sizes, from that of a man's head to that of a cottage. By and by we came to the Mauvais Pas, or the Villainous Road, to translate it feelingly. It was a breakneck path around the face of a precipice forty or fifty feet high, and nothing to hang on to but some iron railings. I got along, slowly, safely, and uncomfortably, and finally reached the middle. My hopes began to rise a little, but they were quickly blighted; for there I met a hog--a long-nosed, bristly fellow, that held up his snout and worked his nostrils at me inquiringly. A hog on |
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