Abstained from converse, no one spoke a word
Till hours of strenuous search disclosed to sight
Six corpses from their sepulchre of white.
The other two, who by some wondrous means,
Escaped with but some trifling cuts and sprains,
Were in the meantime by their fellows found,
Dazed and exhausted in the gulch below,
For storm-bewildered men will grope around
Describing circles in the blinding snow,
Until they sink, their vital forces spent,