de, sublimity, beauty, and
infinity, 'Lord, what is man, that Thou art mindful of him? and the son
of man, that Thou visitest him?'"[42]

At the "Notch" the true character of the enterprise she had undertaken
was forcibly brought home to Miss Bird's consciousness. The Peak towered
above her, two thousand feet of solid rock, with smooth granite sides,
affording scarcely a foothold, and patches of re-frozen snow, presenting
no ordinary obstacle to the advance. She was by no means an expert
mountaineer, having "neither head nor ankles," and, in reality, she was
dragged or hauled up the ascent by the patience, skill, and strength of
"Mountain Jim." Up a deep ravine they attained to the passage of the
"Dog's Lift," through which they emerged on a narrow, rugged shelf,
broken and uneven, forming a kind of terrace or platform, where they
drew breath before attempting the last 500 feet--the terminal peak
itself, a smooth cone of pure granite with almost perpendicular sides.
The only foothold here was in narrow cracks or on minute projections of
the granite. To get a toe in these cracks or on one or other of these
scarcely visible projections, while crawling on hands and knees, weary,
thirst-tortured, and gasping for breath, this was to climb; but at last
the peak was won, and Miss Bird rejoiced in the consciousness of being
the first woman who had ever placed her feet on its lofty summit.

The descent, as far as the "Notch," was not less laborious or painful
than the upward effort had been; and when Miss Bird reached their former
camping-ground she was thoroughly exhausted with fatigue and thirst. But
a night's rest recruited her remarkable energies, and when the morning
dawned she was fresh and vigorous as ever, and happy in the memory of
her successful enterprise--an enterprise such as few women have ever
equalled--and in recollections of the beauty and sublimity of Long's
Peak, which cannot fail to be "joys for ever."

The "parks" of which we have spoken are broad, grassy valleys, lying at
heights which vary from 6,000 to 11,000 feet. They are the favourite
retreats of innumerable animals--wapiti, bighorn, oxen, mountain lions,
the great grizzly, the wary beaver, the evil-smelling skunk, the craven
wolf, cayote and lynx, to say nothing of lesser breeds, such as marten,
wild cat, fox, mink, hare, chipmonk, and squirrel. Their features have
been fully described by Lord Dunraven in his picturesque book, "The
Great Divide."