ey scatter snow so profusely that one who sees this region
only in the summer has no conception of its winter appearance. The
snow does not fall as in ordinary storms, but, in these altitudes, the
very heavens seem to press down, ladened with snow, and it falls in
sheets to a depth of five, ten, twenty, thirty and even more feet,
_on the level_.

Look now, however, at the western edge of the Crystal Range. It has
no "slopes." It is composed of a series of absolute precipices, on the
edge of one of which we stand. These precipices, and the razor edge,
are fortified and buttressed by arms which reach out westward and form
rude crescents, called by the French geologists _cirques_, for
here the snow lodges, and is packed to great density and solidity with
all the force, fervor and fury of the mountain winds.

But the snow does not fall alone on the western _cirques_. It
discharges with such prodigality, and the wind demands its release
with such precipitancy, that it lodges in equally vast masses on the
eastern slopes of the Crystal Range. For, while the eastern side
of this range is steep enough to be termed in general parlance
"precipitous," it has a decided slope when compared with the sheer
drop of the western side. Here the configuration and arrangement of
the rock-masses also have created a number of _cirques_, where
remnants of the winter's snow masses are yet to be seen. These snow
masses are baby glaciers, or snow being slowly manufactured into
glaciers, or, as some authorities think, _the remnants of the vast
glaciers that once covered this whole region_ with their heavy and
slowly-moving icy cap.

On the Tallac Range the snow fell heavily toward Desolation Valley,
but also on the steep and precipitous slopes that faced the north.
So also with the Angora Range. Its western exposure, however, is of
a fairly gentle slope, so that the snow was blown over to the eastern
side, where there are several precipitous _cirques_ of stupendous
size for the preservation of the accumulated and accumulating snow.

Now let us, in imagination, ascend in a balloon over this region and
hover there, seeking to reconstruct, by mental images, the appearance
it must have assumed and the action that took place in the ages long
ago.

Snow, thirty, fifty, one hundred or more feet deep lay, on the level,
and on the mountain slopes or in precipitous _cirques_ twice,
thrice, or ten times those depths. Snow thus packed together soon
chan