We must find another path, that is all," I answered as cheerfully as I could.
"Yes, and soon," he said, "if we do not wish to stop here for ever." So we turned to the right and marched along the edge of the precipice till, a mile or so away, we came to a small glacier, of which the surface was sprinkled with large stones frozen into its substance.

This glacier hung down the face of the cliff like a petrified waterfall, but whether or no it reached the foot we could not discover.

At any rate, to think of attempting its descent seemed out of the question.

From this point onwards we could see that the precipice increased in depth and far as the eye could reach was absolutely sheer.
So we went back again and searched to the left of our road.

Here the mountains receded, so that above us rose a mighty, dazzling slope of snow and below us lay that same pitiless, unclimbable gulf.