At half past four we tied the skins of mule & jib meat on the two donkeys which Harry had commandeered. One bay horse lay down his nerve did in the darkness it would be dangerous to follow its trail along the cliffs. By [illegible] it was pitch dark in the gorge. The vertical walls of rock shut out even the star light & we could not see more than a dozen feet ahead of us. After I was want to have that walk again. I crossed the ravine icy stream 28 times & then I lost count. It was too much and tired & had called me to many [illegible] I scratched my hands & felt up in too many rocks & had it made the slightest difference whether or how many times more than 28 we went into the trail. The donkeys were our only guides for they by instinct, something of the trail (certainly (it could not have been right) they followed the trail along the base of the cliffs. By keeping my hand down to back of the rear most animal & the two animals close I rose, we got out of the [illegible] calm & into the stair like valley.