SCRAMBLES AMONGST THE ALPS. 369

advance. A man must either be incompetent, careless, orselfish if he permits the rope to dangle about the heelsof the person in front of him.

The distance from man to man must neither be too greatnor too small. About 12 feet between each is sufficient.If there are only two or three persons, it is prudent to allowa little more—say 15 feet. More than this is unnecessary,and less than 9 or 10 feet is not much good.

It is essential to examine your rope from time to timeto see that it is in good condition, and if you are wise youwill do this yourself every day. Latterly, I have examinedevery inch of my rope overnight, and upon more than oneoccasion have found the strands of the Manilla rope nearlyhalf severed through accidental grazes.

Thus far the rope has been supposed to be employed uponlevel, snow-covered glacier, to prevent any risk from concealedcrevasses. On rocks and on slopes it is used for a differentpurpose (namely, to guard against slips), and in these cases itis equally important to keep it taut, and to preserve a reason-able distance one from the other. It is much more trouble-some to keep the rope taut upon slopes than upon the level;and upon difficult rocks it is all but impossible, except byadopting the plan of moving only one at a time (see p. 166).

There is no good reason for employing a rope upon easyrocks, and I believe that its needless use is likely to promotecarelessness. On difficult rocks and on snow-slopes (fre-quently improperly called ice-slopes) it is a great advantage tobe tied together, provided the rope is handled properly ; butupon actual ice-slopes, such as that on the Col Dolent (p. 345),or upon slopes in which ice is mingled with small and looserocks, such as the upper part of the Pointe des Ecrins(p. 209), it is almost useless, because the slip of one personmight upset the entire party.* I am not prepared to say,

* When several persons are descending such places, it is evident thatthe last man cannot derive any assistance from the rope, and so mjghtas well be untied. Partly upon this account, it is usual to place one ofthe strongest and steadiest men last. Now, although this cannot betermed a senseless precaution, it is obvious that it is a perfectly uselessone, if it is true that a single slip would upset the entire party. Thebest plan 1 know is that which we Adopted on the descent of the Col