These
were serious considerations, but the hope of finding an immense tract of
available sheep country (which I was determined that I would monopolise
as far as I possibly could) sufficed to outweigh them; and, in a few
minutes, I felt resolved that, having made so important a discovery as a
pass into a country which was probably as valuable as that on our own
side of the ranges, I would follow it up and ascertain its value, even
though I should pay the penalty of failure with life itself. The more I
thought, the more determined I became either to win fame and perhaps
fortune, by entering upon this unknown world, or give up life in the
attempt. In fact, I felt that life would be no longer valuable if I were
to have seen so great a prize and refused to grasp at the possible
profits therefrom.
I had still an hour of good daylight during which I might begin my
descent on to some suitable camping-ground, but there was not a moment to
be lost. At first I got along rapidly, for I was on the snow, and sank
into it enough to save me from falling, though I went forward straight
down the mountain side as fast as I could; but there was less snow on
this side than on the other, and I had soon done with it, getting on to a
coomb of dangerous and very stony ground, where a slip might have given
me a disastrous fall.
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