press ourselves, but climbed leisurely, sitting down so soon as we found
breath beginning to fail. At intervals we reached places where a number of
springs gushed from the rocks, and about 1800 feet above the lakes came to
the snow line. From this point our progress was uninterrupted climbing.
Hitherto I had worn a pair of thick moccasins, with soles of
_parfleche_, but here I put on a light, thin pair, which I had
brought for the purpose, as now the use of our toes became necessary to a
further advance. I availed myself of a sort of comb of the mountain, which
stood against the wall like a buttress, and which the wind and the solar
radiation, joined to the steepness of the smooth rock, had kept almost
entirely free from snow. Up this I made my way rapidly. Our cautious
method of advancing at the outset had spared my strength; and, with the
exception of a slight disposition to headache, I felt no remains of
yesterday's illness. In a few minutes we reached a point where the
buttress was overhanging, and there was no other way of surmounting the
difficulty than by passing around one side of it, which was the face of a
vertical precipice of several hundred feet.

Putting hands and feet in the crevices between the blocks, I succeeded in
getting over it, and, when I reached the top, found my companions in a
small valley below. Descending to them, we continued climbing, and in a
short time reached the crest. I sprang upon the summit, and another step
would have precipitated me into an immense snow-field five hundred feet
below. To the edge of this field was a sheer icy precipice; and then, with
a gradual fall, the field sloped off for about a mile, until it struck the
foot of another lower ridge. I stood on a narrow crest, about three feet
in width, with an inclination of about 20 deg.N. 51 deg.E. As soon as I had
gratified the first feelings of curiosity, I descended, and each man
ascended in his turn; for I would only allow one at a time to mount the
unstable and precarious slab, which it seemed a breath would hurl into the