There was all the appearance of immense
thickness, especially towards the upper part.
Christian had placed his candle in a niche in the column, while he
arranged the string for measuring the fall, and the effect of the spark
of light at the top of the long steep slope was extremely strange from
below. The whole scene was so remarkable, that it required some effort
to realise the fact that I was not in a dream. Christian stood at the
top invisible, jodeling in a most unearthly manner, and developing an
astonishing falsetto power, only interrupting his performance to assure
me that he was not coming down again; so I was obliged to measure the
breadth of the fall by myself. I chose a part where the ice was not very
steep, and where occasional points of rock would save some of the labour
of cutting steps; but even so it was a sufficiently tedious business.
The string was always catching at something, and mere progression,
without any string to manage, would have been difficult enough under the
circumstances. It was completely dark, so a candle occupied one hand,
and, as every step must be cut, save where an opportune rock or stone
appeared, an axe occupied the other; then there was the string to be
attended to, and both hands must be ready to clutch at some projecting
point when a slip came, and now and then a ruder rock required
circumvention.
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