Where there are steep and lofty precipices, crumbling rocks, and overhanging cliffs, such as those which obstruct the path of the party whose toilsome journey is illustrated in the accompanying engraving, the feat of climbing a Mountain is hazardous and difficult enough; but when heights are reached where the rocks are covered with ice, where deep clefts are concealed by a treacherous covering of snow where avalanches threaten the traveller at every step, and where the mountain-side often seems as difficult to climb as a pane of glass, the prospect seems as if it ought to appal the stoutest heart.

But some hearts are stouter than we think, and up those icy rocks, along the edges of bewildering precipices, over, under, and around great masses of rock, across steep glaciers where every footstep must be made in a hole cut in the ice, brave men have climbed and crept and gradually and painfully worked their way, until at last they stood proudly on the summit, and gazed around at the vast expanse of mountains, plains, valleys, and forests, spread far and wide beneath them.

In Europe there are regular associations or clubs of mountain-climbers, which at favorable periods endeavor to make the ascent of lofty and difficult Mountains.  Nearly every peak of the Pyrenees and the Alps has felt the feet of these adventurers, who take as much delight in their dangerous pursuits as is generally found by the happiest of those who are content with the joys of ordinary altitudes.

We have very many grand Mountains in our country, but we have not yet reduced their ascent to such a system as that which these Alpine clubs have adopted.  But very many of our countrymen have climbed to the loftiest peaks of the White Mountains, the Catskills, the Alleghenies, and the Rocky Mountains.

Mountain-climbing is certainly dangerous, and it is about the hardest labor of which man is capable, but the proud satisfaction of standing upon a mountain-top repays the climber for all the labor, and makes him forget all the dangers that he has passed through.

ANDREW’S PLAN.

[Illustration]

“Oh, Andy!” said little Jenny Murdock, “I’m so glad you came along this way.  I can’t get over.”

“Can’t get over?” said Andrew; “why, what’s the matter?”

“The bridge is gone,” said Jenny.  “When I came across after breakfast it was there, and now it’s over on the other side, and how can I get back home?”

“Why so it is,” said Andrew.  “It was all right when I came over a little while ago, but Old Donald pulls it on the other side every morning after he has driven his cows across, and I don’t think he has any right to do it.  I expect he thinks the bridge was made for him and his cows.”

“Now I must go down to the big bridge, Andy, and I want you to come with me.  I’m afraid to go through all those dark woods by myself,” said Jenny.