of the Egyptians; one displaced from its pedestal by
enormous roots; another locked in the close embrace of branches of
trees, and almost lifted out of the earth; another hurled to the ground,
and bound down by huge vines and creepers; and one standing, with its
altar before it, in a grove of trees which grew around it, seemingly to
shade and shroud it as a sacred thing; in the solemn stillness of the
woods it seemed a divinity mourning over a fallen people. The only
sounds that disturbed the quiet of this buried city, were the noise of
monkeys moving among the tops of the trees, and the cracking of dry
branches broken by their weight. They moved over our heads in long and
swift processions, forty or fifty at a time; some, with little ones
wound in their long arms, walking out to the end of boughs, and holding
on with their hind feet, or a curl of the tail, sprang to a branch of
the next tree, and with a noise like a current of wind, passed on into
the depths of the forest. It was the first time we had seen these
mockeries of humanity, and with the strange monuments around us, they
seemed like wandering spirits of the departed race, guarding the ruins
of their former habitations.

... We sat down on the very edge of the wall, and strove in vain to
penetrate the mystery by which we were surrounded. Who were the people
that built this city? In the ruined cities of Egypt,--even in the long
lost Petra, the stranger knows the story of the people whose vestiges
are around him. America, say historians, was peopled by savages; but
savages never reared these structures, savages never carved these
stones.

* * * * *

=_John Charles Fremont, 1813-._= (Manual, p. 505.)

From "Report of an Exploring Expedition."

=_270._= ASCENT OF A PEAK OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.

We continued climbing, and in a short time reached the crest. I sprang
upon the summit, and another step would have precipitated me into an
immense snow field five hundred feet below. To the edge of this field
was a sheer icy precipice; and then, with a gradual fall, the field
sloped off for about a mile, until it struck the foot of another lower
ridge. I stood on a narrow crest, about three feet in width, with an
inclination of about 20 deg. N., 51 deg. E. As soon as I had gratified the first
feelings of curiosity, I descended, and each man ascended in his
turn; for I would only allow one at a time to mount the unstable and
precario