or a number of years it defied all efforts to scale it. From 1864 to
1868 a number of unsuccessful attempts to reach the top failed. In the
summer of 1868 a party in charge of W. N. Byers, who had led the first
unsuccessful party, reached the top. Since that time each year has
seen an increasing number of successful climbers. Most climbers go in
small parties, for large ones (more than five) are dangerous. Dogs are
dangerous companions on a climb, because they start rock-slides.

As a boy I lived at the foot of this forbidding Sphinx, climbed it
every month in the year, and thus came to know its mighty moods, the
terrific fury of its storms, the glory of its outlook.

Miss Carrie J. Welton lost her life upon the Peak in 1884. She gave
out near the top and her guide, Carlyle Lamb, son of the Parson, made
heroic efforts to save her. But he, too, became exhausted and had to
leave her alone while he went for help.

But when help arrived, Miss Welton was dead, having perished from
exhaustion and cold.

Other casualties have occurred on this towering mountain. A boy left
his parents in camp at the foot of the Peak and disappeared. Late in
the summer, as the snowbanks diminished, his body was found, lying at
the base of the three-thousand-foot precipice. One man was killed by
the accidental discharge of a pistol. A doctor was killed by
lightning. In January, 1925, occurred a double tragedy. Miss Agnes
Vaille perished near the spot where Miss Welton lost her life, and
under similar conditions. Herbert Sortland, member of the rescue
party, became lost and perished in the storm that was raging over the
heights. His body was found many weeks afterward within a few minutes'
walk of home.

CHAPTER TEN

MODERN PATHFINDERS

Back on the farm of my childhood, the names of Kit Carson, Jim Bridger,
Buffalo Bill and other renowned frontiersmen were ever on the lips of
my parents. Their reckless bravery that took no thought of self, their
diplomatic cunning that cleverly kept the Indians friendly, their
unlimited resourcefulness, equal to the most unprecedented emergencies,
were the subjects of many a heroic tale. When I came West, no matter
how far I penetrated into remote regions, if there were trapper or
prospector about, I found the immortal fame of these intrepid
pathfinders had traveled into those mountain-guarded wildernesses.

They became the heroes of my boyish dreams, the patterns of my conduct,
th