And Each With His Dress Alight In
Half-A-Dozen Places.
You have read, a thousand times, that the usual way of descending,
is, by sliding down the ashes:
Which, forming a gradually-
increasing ledge below the feet, prevent too rapid a descent. But,
when we have crossed the two exhausted craters on our way back and
are come to this precipitous place, there is (as Mr. Pickle has
foretold) no vestige of ashes to be seen; the whole being a smooth
sheet of ice.
In this dilemma, ten or a dozen of the guides cautiously join
hands, and make a chain of men; of whom the foremost beat, as well
as they can, a rough track with their sticks, down which we prepare
to follow. The way being fearfully steep, and none of the party:
even of the thirty: being able to keep their feet for six paces
together, the ladies are taken out of their litters, and placed,
each between two careful persons; while others of the thirty hold
by their skirts, to prevent their falling forward--a necessary
precaution, tending to the immediate and hopeless dilapidation of
their apparel. The rather heavy gentleman is abjured to leave his
litter too, and be escorted in a similar manner; but he resolves to
be brought down as he was brought up, on the principle that his
fifteen bearers are not likely to tumble all at once, and that he
is safer so, than trusting to his own legs.
In this order, we begin the descent:
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