CHAPTER FORTY FOUR.
FLYING THE KITE.
The kite having been thus prepared, they only waited for an opportunity of flying it--for a day when the wind should be sufficiently strong, and blowing from the right quarter--that is, towards that portion of the precipice over which it appeared best that the paper-bird should be dispatched.

This was the same place, where the ladders had been set, and where they had unsuccessfully endeavoured to send up the bearcoot.
They had already ascended one of the isolated cairns of rock, that stood within the valley nearly opposite this part of the cliff; and from its top they had been able to get a view--though not a very good one--of a portion of the sloping declivity of the mountain above.

It appeared to be covered with snow--here and there supporting huge masses of something, either boulders of rock, or dark-coloured lumps of ice.

The eyes of our adventurers rested on these with the greatest interest: as they had done upon a former occasion, when about to send the bearcoot among them.

Now they had conceived higher hopes than ever--founded upon the presence of these masses.