io6 COOK IN THE ANTARCTIC AND IN ALASKA 



they were amazed to see before them no fewer than twelve conical 

 peaks in an air line, all nearly twelve thousand feet high, the last 

 of them a pinnacle in the huge northern barrier ridge of Mount 

 McKinley. 



Ptarmigan a hardy variety of grouse were here abundant, 

 and Barrille succeeded in shooting some of them, but to cook them 

 with their sparse fire proved far from easy and they had much diffi- 

 culty to get them into eatable condition. At the end of the following 

 day they pitched their camp at a height of eight thousand feet. All 

 so far had gone well. In three days they had advanced over thirty- 

 five miles of the foot-hills of the mountain, and reached what seemed 

 a good position for an attack upon its heights. Every point and 

 surrounding landmark was carefully charted as they went and their 

 route clearly defined. 



The fourth day dawned and the march was resumed, the snow 

 improving in condition as they advanced, though the crevasse gaps 

 became wider. But what chiefly troubled them now were the ava- 

 lanches, which became perilously close and numerous. Yet there 

 was no safer route to follow and they went on. The close of that 

 day brought them to the level they had laid out as the extent of their 

 present climb, and to a region of biting gusts, to escape which they 

 felt it necessary to build a snow-house a sort of Eskimo igloo. 

 Here they were comfortably housed for the night, though the tem- 

 perature outside was below zero and the muffled roar of falling 

 avalanches reached their ears during the night. Eating their eve- 

 ning meal of pemmican, biscuit and tea, and creeping into their warm 

 sleeping-bags, they passed a warm restful night in their igloo, safe 

 from the Arctic weather that raged without. 



When they emerged from their close beds the next morning 

 and ventured abroad, they were gratified to find that the clouds had 

 fled and there was an unobstructed view of the mountains and 

 glaciers which they had climbed to this point to study. Completing 

 their general observation, they examined the mountain before them 



