try to climb old Robson--_'Yuh-hai-has-kun_,'
the Indians called it, 'the mountain with the stairs.' But when they
tried to climb it they never could quite find the stairs. So far no
one has made the ascent.[1]

[Footnote 1: At the time of this journey the Kinney ascension of Mount
Robson had not yet been made.--THE AUTHOR.]

[Illustration: TOWERING ABOVE ALL, AND DWARFING ALL RIVALRY, THERE
STOOD BEFORE THEM ONE GREAT NOBLE WHITE-TOPPED PEAK--MT. ROBSON]

"Many a man has heard of this mountain," continued Uncle Dick, "and a
good many have tried to climb it. One party spent all the season
trying to get behind it and find a way up. But Robson doesn't seem to
have any blind side."

"Why can't we try it?" said Rob, enthusiastically.

"Some day, perhaps," smiled Uncle Dick, "but hardly now, as short of
grub as we are, and as short of time as well. Mountain climbing is a
business of itself, and you need a complete equipment. It would take a
year, two years, or three to climb Robson, very likely. So with two or
three days at our disposal I'll have to ask to be excused from the
attempt; let us take on something easier for an order.

"Now," he added, "about all we can do is to take off our hats to the
old peak and say good morning as we pass."

"And thank you very much, Sir Mountain," said Jesse, gravely, his
young face serious as he looked toward the peak, "because you let us
see clear all up to the top."

"It mightn't happen once in months," said Uncle Dick. "I've passed
here several times, and I've never had as fine a view as we have
right now. She's thirteen thousand seven hundred feet, our
triangulations made it. That's something of a mountain, to be hid
back in here all by itself, isn't it?

"Up at the foot of the mountain," he continued, "there's a fine lake,
as lovely as Lake Louise down in the lower Rockies. I do wish we had
time to go up in there, for the lake is worth seeing. Some day it will
be famous, and visited by thousands. At least we can see the edge of
it from where we are, and lucky you are to have so early a look, I can
assure you.

"Well, we'll be going on," said he, presently, as he gathered up his
reins. "We can't take the time now for fifteen miles of the sort of
travel that lies between here and the foot of the mountain. At least
we've seen Robson, full front and clear all the way to the summit--a
most unusual sight. You may always remember now that you saw this
mountain before it became c