abyss below. We mounted the barometer in the snow of the summit, and,
fixing a ramrod in a crevice, unfurled the national flag to wave in the
breeze where never flag waved before. During our morning's ascent, we had
met no sign of animal life, except the small sparrow-like bird already
mentioned. A stillness the most profound and a terrible solitude forced
themselves constantly on the mind as the great features of the place.
Here, on the summit, where the stillness was absolute, unbroken by any
sound, and solitude complete, we thought ourselves beyond the region of
animated life; but while we were sitting on the rock, a solitary bee
(_bromus, the humble-bee_) came winging his flight from the eastern
valley, and lit on the knee of one of the men.

It was a strange place, the icy rock and the highest peak of the Rocky
mountains, for a lover of warm sunshine and flowers; and we pleased
ourselves with the idea that he was the first of his species to cross the
mountain barrier--a solitary pioneer to foretell the advance of
civilization. I believe that a moment's thought would have made us let him
continue his way unharmed; but we carried out the law of this country,
where all animated nature seems at war; and, seizing him immediately, put
him in at least a fit place--in the leaves of a large book, among the
flowers we had collected on our way. The barometer stood at 18.293, the
attached thermometer at 44 deg.; giving for the elevation of this summit
13,570 feet above the Gulf of Mexico, which may be called the highest
flight of the bee. It is certainly the highest known flight of that
insect. From the description given by Mackenzie of the mountains where he
crossed them, with that of a French officer still farther to the north,
and Colonel Long's measurements to the south, joined to the opinion of the
oldest traders of the country, it is presumed that this is the highest
peak of the Rocky mountains. The day was sunny and bright, but a slight
shining mist hung over the lower plains, which interfered with our view of