At Night, After A Long Easy Climb Over Wide And Smooth Fields Of Ice, We Reached A Narrow Ridge, At An Elevation Of About Ten Thousand Feet Above The Sea, On The Divide Between The Glaciers Of The Nisqually And The Cowlitz.

Here we lay as best we could, waiting for another day, without fire of course, as we were now many miles beyond the timberline and without much to cover us.

After eating a little hardtack, each of us leveled a spot to lie on among lava-blocks and cinders. The night was cold, and the wind coming down upon us in stormy surges drove gritty ashes and fragments of pumice about our ears while chilling to the bone. Very short and shallow was our sleep that night; but day dawned at last, early rising was easy, and there was nothing about breakfast to cause any delay. About four o'clock we were off, and climbing began in earnest. We followed up the ridge on which we had spent the night, now along its crest, now on either side, or on the ice leaning against it, until we came to where it becomes massive and precipitous. Then we were compelled to crawl along a seam or narrow shelf, on its face, which we traced to its termination in the base of the great ice cap. From this point all the climbing was over ice, which was here desperately steep but fortunately was at the same time carved into innumerable spikes and pillars which afforded good footholds, and we crawled cautiously on, warm with ambition and exercise.

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