Continuing the same subject, together with the method of going over crevasses

OW, so that travellers may cross over these crevasses, they at once set to with bill-hooks and axes, and, as though they were making bridges from stones, fit into place any whole blocks of ice they can find, lying at an angle on each side of them in order to position them.¹ If the break is not seen in time and a beast of burden sinks in the dark abyss, then at once, with the assistance of the ropes and thin planks of wood they always carry with them, it is hauled out with the deftness of the experienced traveller.