While the next ravine was not the bed of a glacier, it contained very much more snow. At the height to which the boys had reached by that time the storms during the day had been more frequent and more severe, consequently there was a great deal of fresh snow, which made traveling very much more difficult. At first the trail climbed along well up on the left side of the ravine, and in that exposed position it was not filled uniformly with soft snow. In places the snow had failed to lodge, or had been swept away by eddying gusts, and those places came with sufficient frequency to mark the road for the travelers. So, usually, while the boys were floundering through a deep deposit of fresh snow, they were able to see, ahead of them, the trail where it passed over the old hard snow of former years. In that way they were enabled to keep the general direction of the road, though they were sometimes off it, in deeper snow than ever. At such times when they left the trail, they frequently plunged down into soft snow that was above their waists, and were obliged to make a desperate effort to get back on the hard foundation. Such traveling would have been sufficiently difficult if the boys had been unencumbered, and with the packs they were carrying it was extremely exhausting. Once or twice, when Raymond stepped off into loose snow, he was obliged to wait for Sidney’s help before he could get back. Sometimes, when the boys sank down in that way, they would loosen their blanket rolls, and throw them up, thus being enabled to crawl out without help. All that occupied much time, besides taking the strength of the struggling boys, and the sun sank behind the western peaks and they were still not out of that cañon. Then, too, as they constantly climbed to higher elevations, and the trail approached the upper end of the ravine, it was less exposed to the wind and was more evenly covered with snow. So, finally, the boys labored through deep snow without any intervals of good road, and could only with difficulty keep the trail at all. For what seemed to the boys hours they toiled on and up, without conversation, except when one of them briefly requested aid from the other. All their breath was needed for the work they were doing, with none left for talk. Sidney was a little taller than his brother, and in deep snow that gave him great advantage. Then, being older, he was more solid and more closely knit, consequently he possessed greater endurance. So it was generally his lot to pull Raymond out of holes.