470 MERGE TO GYRENE.

slipping along at others over a hard, polished surface, which was still more difficult to pass than they were. When we arrived at a descent more than usually perpendicular, we had the greatest difficulty, after sliding down ourselves, to make our poor horses follow us ; and it was truly distressing, as well as provoking, to see these fine animals reduced to a condition in which they did not appear to have the power of exerting the slightest portion of their natural energy. Their eyes appeared starting from their heads, and their nostrils were distended to the utmost extent ; a mass of white foam was collected round their mouths, mixed with blood which the sharp Mamaluke bit had drawn forth in our endeavours to keep them from falling down the cliff, and the perspiration which terror and fatigue (without mentioning the heat of the sun) had drawn forth, literally ran down in streams from their bodies. They became at length so helpless and so completely overcome, that we doubted whether we should ever get them down the cliff at all, and indeed our own fatigue and continued anxiety would not have rendered us very effective conductors if the descent had lasted much longer. Yet our horses had been accustomed to roads of every description, or rather to countries with no roads at all, and had often laboured through deep and heavy sands, and over rugged and mountainous passes, in the course of their journey from Tripoly.

They had also an advantage in having only three shoes, which prevented them from slipping about so much as they would otherwise have done ; and in short they went through this arduous part of their