The peak itself was torn and shattered, so that it revealed great gleaming surfaces and pits, in which glittered mica, or some other mineral.

The vast gulf behind was half filled with the avalanche and its debris.

But for the rest, it seemed as though nothing had happened, for the sun shone sweetly overhead and the solemn snows reflected its rays from the sides of a hundred hills.

And we had endured it all and were still alive; yes, and unhurt.
But what a position was ours! We dared not attempt to descend the mount, lest we should sink into the loose snow and be buried there.

Moreover, all along the breadth of the path of the avalanche boulders from time to time still thundered down the rocky slope, and with them came patches of snow that had been left behind by the big slide, small in themselves, it is true, but each of them large enough to kill a hundred men.