thward
in long elliptical curves; no part of the summit being less than 2,000
feet above us, the higher crags not infrequently reaching 3,000 feet. A
single field of snow swept around the base of the rock, and covered the
whole amphitheatre, except where a few spikes and rounded masses of
granite rose through it, and where two frozen lakes, with their blue
ice-disks, broke the monotonous surface. Through the white snow-gate of
our amphitheatre, as through a frame, we looked eastward upon the summit
group; not a tree, not a vestige of vegetation in sight,--sky, snow, and
granite the only elements in this wild picture.

After searching for a shelter we at last found a granite crevice near
the margin of one of the frozen lakes,--a sort of shelf just large
enough for Cotter and me,--where we hastened to make our bed, having
first filled the canteen from a small stream that trickled over the ice,
knowing that in a few moments the rapid chill would freeze it. We ate
our supper of cold venison and bread, and whittled from the sides of the
wooden barometer case shaving enough to warm water for a cup of
miserably tepid tea, and then, packing our provisions and instruments
away at the head of the shelf, rolled ourselves in our blankets and lay
down to enjoy the view.

After such fatiguing exercises the mind has an almost abnormal
clearness: whether this is wholly from within, or due to the intensely
vitalizing mountain air, I am not sure; probably both contribute to the
state of exaltation in which all alpine climbers find themselves. The
solid granite gave me a luxurious repose, and I lay on the edge of our
little rock niche and watched the strange yet brilliant scene.

All the snow of our recess lay in the shadow of the high granite wall to
the west, but the Kern divide which curved around us from the southeast
was in full light; its broken sky-line, battlemented and adorned with
innumerable rough-hewn spires and pinnacles, was a mass of glowing
orange intensely defined against the deep violet sky. At the open end of
our horseshoe amphitheatre, to the east, its floor of snow rounded over
in a smooth brink, overhanging precipices which sank 2,000 feet into the
King's Canon. Across the gulf rose the whole procession of summit peaks,
their lower half rooted in a deep sombre shadow cast by the western
wall, the heights bathed in a warm purple haze, in which the irregular
marbling of snow burned with a pure crimson light. A few fl