oused. If the case is otherwise
and he be doomed to combat these terrible storms, his situation is
most critical. During the summer months the lofty peaks of this mighty
chain of mountains, like those of the Alps, are covered with white
caps of snow. As time, the bright sun and the south wind wear out
these old-lady head-gearings, no matter what be the part of the year,
whether the cold days of January, or the hot days of August, the snow
storms are faithful in replenishing them. It affords a contrast of the
elements of the grandest conception to stand in the shade of some wavy
verdure of the valley wiping off the unbidden perspiration from
the brow, and, at the same instant, look upon a darkly threatening
storm-cloud powdering the heads of the hoary monster mountains from
its freight of flaky snow. So far these American giant mountains
are unsurpassed by their Alpine neighbors of Europe. Not so in
the glaciers. Throughout the great range, there are none of those
beautiful glaciers to be found that can compare with those possessed
by their compeers in Europe.

To the traveler whose taste has led him to wander along the "Great
back bones," or vertebrae, of the two hemispheres, preparing the mind
to draw truthful contrast, his pleasantest reveries will find him
drawing comparisons between them. He is never tired, for the subject
he cannot exhaust. When, supposing that his conclusions are at last
made and that the Alps have won the highest place in favor, some
forgotten scene from America will assume the form and shape of a vivid
recollection, rife with scenic grandeur and sublimity, restoring the
Rocky chain to its counterpoise; then, an hour of peril and fearful
toil will come to memory, and, until the same mental process shall
bring them again to an equilibrium, the far-famed Alps will descend
in the balance. Each have their attractions, each their grandeur, each
their sublimity, each their wonderful, awful silence, each their long
and glorious landscape views, while, to each, the general contour is
the same. In the point of altitude, the Rocky chain, as is well known
to science, has the advantage; but, in historical science and lore,
the famous Alps stand preeminent. True, it is from ignorance that
we are led to concede this, because no man can give to the world the
reminiscences of the Rocky Mountains. Their history, since the first
red man entered them, must forever rest in oblivion. In scenery these
mountains of th