We had not lost more than a quarter of an hour in this halt; but it was
sufficient, as I found when I rose, to have cooled me down and made me
feel fresh and ready for the arduous climb that we now had to make. Our
path was along by the stream for a time, but more often right in it, for
the valley grew narrower, and was frequently little more than a gigantic
crack in the mountain-side; but so beautiful that I often longed to stop
and gaze at the overhanging ferns and velvety moss by some foaming fall,
where the water came down from above like so much fine misty rain.
But there was no halting, and we kept on till the leader suddenly turned
into a gloomy niche on our left, out of which another stream rushed; and
here for some time we had to climb from rock to rock, and often drag
ourselves on to some shelf by the overhanging roots of trees. The
ascent was wonderfully steep, and sometimes so narrow that we were in a
dim twilight with the sky far away above us, like a jagged line of
light. As for the stream in whose bed we were, it was a succession of
tiny falls now, and we were soon dripping from the waist downward.
But no word was spoken, and the men worked together as if trained by
long service to this kind of travelling. When some awkward rock had
been climbed by the leader, he stopped and held down his hand to Mr
Raydon, who sprang up and offered me the same assistance, while I,
taking it as the proper thing to do, held my hand down to the next.
For full two hours we struggled up this narrow rift before it became
less deep, and the light nearer. Then the climbing was less difficult,
and drier, and I could see that we were getting up more on to the open
mountain-side, amid the bare rocks and piled-up stones. All at once the
leader stopped short, and pointed up to where, quite half a mile away, I
could see about a dozen sheep standing clearly defined against the sky,
their heads with the great curled horns plainly visible. Some were
feeding, but two stood above the rest as if on guard.