Gents Mag 1902 part 2 p.421

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	Gentleman's Magazine 1902 part 2 p.421 way to the narrow belt of grass by the tarn's outlet. The crag was now close at hand, and they eagerly scanned its fifteen-hundred-feet sheer face. A fault in the rock, cleaving it from base well-nigh to summit, was the point of attack they had selected, and they climbed up the scree to its lowest point. At the foot of the crag the rope was adjusted, and Bate led up a narrow gully, which a few yards above seemed to lose itself in the wall of rock. The toilers gradually climbed up till the ravine narrowed, and the gully was blocked above by a huge cornice. Here footholds must continue either to right or left - it might mean a perilous hand-traverse across the face of the cliff, but having warmed to their work this peril could not daunt them. The rock above was virgin, human foot had not yet been placed on it; hence its conquest, after so many failures would be a feat. Hour after hour the pair laboured on, trying anew grip here, or a tiny foothold there, till one with less patience might have judged the attempt a failure. Meanwhile the whole aspect was changing. In the west the misty blue had deepened into blackness, the light of the sun was sensibly diminished as the veil of mists extended, the glinting of the ripples on the tarn beneath ceased, and the bleak slopes around looked still more depressing. The minutes passed, and the storm-hiss on the moor above was succeeded by a distant mutter of thunder. Though this change was perfectly well known to them, they did not speak of it to each other. "Stop?" queried Bate, "dinner-time." Graves spragged a leg crossways the gully and looked up. "Ay! Is there a ledge handy?" "No, two good toe-grips here, and another pair higher up. Shall I get to 'em?" Very cautiously Jem Bate continued his scramble; his knees outspread could now touch both sides of the crack; arm pressure had to be lifting power. At last he succeeded in reaching the point he had spoken of, and prepared to give a helping haul to his companion. The position which he was forced to stand in was very uncomfortable, his shoulders were bent by the hanging mass above; so he looked around for an easier position. A narrow gap close above promised a little, and into it he crawled; it was a drain-like crack scoring the base of the pinnacle. Crag-instinct pointed to the possibilty of this traverse continuing into a higher gully, and this hope was strengthened by the tiny stream trickling down. In a few words Jem conveyed the discovery to Graves, who was eating his lunch twenty feet below.
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