re of boulders, with
precipitous sides all round, the one we came up being the only
accessible one.

It was not possible to remain long. One of the young men was seriously
alarmed by bleeding from the lungs, and the intense dryness of the day
and the rarefication of the air, at a height of nearly 15,000 feet,
made respiration very painful. There is always water on the Peak, but
it was frozen as hard as a rock, and the sucking of ice and snow
increases thirst. We all suffered severely from the want of water, and
the gasping for breath made our mouths and tongues so dry that
articulation was difficult, and the speech of all unnatural.

From the summit were seen in unrivalled combination all the views which
had rejoiced our eyes during the ascent. It was something at last to
stand upon the storm-rent crown of this lonely sentinel of the Rocky
Range, on one of the mightiest of the vertebrae of the backbone of the
North American continent, and to see the waters start for both oceans.
Uplifted above love and hate and storms of passion, calm amidst the
eternal silences, fanned by zephyrs and bathed in living blue, peace
rested for that one bright day on the Peak, as if it were some region

Where falls not rain, or hail, or any snow,
Or ever wind blows loudly.

We placed our names, with the date of ascent, in a tin within a
crevice, and descended to the Ledge, sitting on the smooth granite,
getting our feet into cracks and against projections, and letting
ourselves down by our hands, "Jim" going before me, so that I might
steady my feet against his powerful shoulders. I was no longer giddy,
and faced the precipice of 3,500 feet without a shiver. Repassing the
Ledge and Lift, we accomplished the descent through 1,500 feet of ice
and snow, with many falls and bruises, but no worse mishap, and there
separated, the young men taking the steepest but most direct way to the
"Notch," with the intention of getting ready for the march home, and
"Jim" and I taking what he thought the safer route for me--a descent
over boulders for 2,000 feet, and then a tremendous ascent to the
"Notch." I had various falls, and once hung by my frock, which caught
on a rock, and "Jim" severed it with his hunting knife, upon which I
fell into a crevice full of soft snow. We were driven lower down the
mountains than he had intended by impassable tracts of ice, and the
ascent was tremendous. For the last 200 feet the boulders were of
enormou