We can't figure it out.
They told us to look for a river coming from the right. We
don't find one. We seem a long way from the summit. Camp
9.30 on rocky flat. Trout and grayling both for supper. Very
fine.

"_Thursday, July 24th._--Haven't slept very well. Everybody
getting sore and tired. Don't think we went over four or
five miles all day to-day. Uncle Dick called it 'unmitigated
hell.' Water icy cold now and very fast and heavy. A great
many round, smooth stones in the river, so we can hardly
walk. Our shoes are worn out, and we are only wearing double
moccasins, so that our feet can hardly stand it. Uncle Dick
fell down once and hurt his leg pretty bad. An accident
might happen any time. The Indian boys are tired but game.
When we asked them how far to the top they said, 'I dinno,'
which is about all the English they have. Current getting
worse and worse, and the bad part is that the water is so
shallow that in places it is hard to get even our light
canoe through. We have to make crossings, and then there is
risk of the boat swinging down and pulling us off our feet.
I suppose a fellow would drown with the track-line around
him. Mighty hard work. At nine o'clock the two Indian boys
all in, and had to stop. At ten I went up with Uncle Dick to
explore. A river came from the right, so we thought this was
the junction of which they told us at McPherson. Went back
and got the rest and camped here about midnight. Tundra
under the trees. Couldn't drive tent-pegs for ice. A bad
camp. Everybody tired.

"Here we found the Summit Tree, not far from the beach. It
says: 'Summit Tree. Please register.' Many names under date
of 1898. Couldn't read all of them. A grizzly had registered
on this tree, too--scraped the bark off high up. Some names
we saw were Watt, Goldheim, Marks, Jones, etc. As is the
custom, we cut our names in, too, with the date, so that
others might see them. We slashed down the brush to the
water so that any others coming in now might see this tree
easier and so know where they were. If we had not found this
tree we would not have been sure we had reached the summit.
Well, we are mighty glad, anyhow. Wet and tired, but pretty
confident. Not much grub. Some rapids!

"_Friday, July 25th._--So tired we slept l