sound, and the solitude complete, we thought ourselves beyond the
region of animated life; but while we were sitting on the rock, a
solitary bee (bombus terrestris, the humble bee) came winging his
flight from the eastern valley, and lit on the knee of one of the
men.

"Around us the whole scene had one main striking feature, which
was that of terrible convulsion. Parallel to its length, the ridge
was split into chasms and fissures, between which rose the thin,
lofty walls, terminated with slender minarets and columns, which
are correctly represented in the view from the camp on Island Lake.
According to the barometer, the little crest of the wall on which
we stood was three thousand five hundred and seventy feet above
that place, and two thousand seven hundred and eighty feet above
the little lakes at the bottom, immediately at our feet.

"Our camp at the Two Hills (an astronomical station) bore south
30 east, which, with a bearing afterward obtained from a fixed
position, enabled us to locate the peak. The bearing of the Trois
Tetons was north 50 degrees west, and the direction of the central
ridge of the Wind River Mountains south 39 degrees east. The summit
rock was gneiss. Sienite and feldspar succeeded in our descent to
the snow line, where we found a felspathic granite. I had remarked
that the noise produced by the explosion of our pistols had the usual
degree of loudness, but was not in the least prolonged, expiring
almost instantaneously. Having now made what observations our means
afforded, we proceeded to descend. We had accomplished an object of
laudable ambition, and beyond the strict order of our instructions.
We had climbed the loftiest peak of the Rocky Mountains and looked
down upon the snow a thousand feet below, and, standing where human