thing looked as though every severe storm might somewhat change
its shape.

So soon as wind was recovered we shook hands all round and a brief
prayer of thanksgiving to Almighty God was said, that He had granted us
our hearts' desire and brought us safely to the top of His great
mountain.

[Sidenote: The Instrument Readings]

This prime duty done, we fell at once to our scientific tasks. The
instrument-tent was set up, the mercurial barometer, taken out of its
leather case and then out of its wooden case, was swung upon its tripod
and a rough zero established, and it was left awhile to adjust itself to
conditions before a reading was attempted. It was a great gratification
to get it to the top uninjured. The boiling-point apparatus was put
together and its candle lighted under the ice which filled its little
cistern. The three-inch, three-circle aneroid was read at once at
thirteen and two-tenths inches, its mendacious altitude scale
confidently pointing at twenty-three thousand three hundred feet. Half
an hour later it had dropped to 13.175 inches and had shot us up another
one hundred feet into the air. Soon the water was boiling in the little
tubes of the boiling-point thermometer and the steam pouring out of the
vent. The thread of mercury rose to 174.9 deg. and stayed there. There
is something definite and uncompromising about the boiling-point
hypsometer; no tapping will make it rise or fall; it reaches its mark
unmistakably and does not budge. The reading of the mercurial barometer
is a slower and more delicate business. It takes a good light and a good
sight to tell when the ivory zero-point is exactly touching the surface
of the mercury in the cistern; it takes care and precision to get the
vernier exactly level with the top of the column. It was read, some
half-hour after it was set up, at 13.617 inches. The alcohol minimum
thermometer stood at 7 deg. F. all the while we were on top. Meanwhile,
Tatum had been reading a round of angles with the prismatic compass. He
could not handle it with sufficient exactness with his mitts on, and he
froze his fingers doing it barehanded.

[Sidenote: The View]

The scientific work accomplished, then and not till then did we indulge
ourselves in the wonderful prospect that stretched around us. It was a
perfectly clear day, the sun shining brightly in the sky, and naught
bounded our view save the natural limitations of vision. Immediately
before us, in the direction in