JOHN C. FREMONT. 161 



Dut a few hundred feet above the island lake. The 

 barometer here stood at 20.450, attached thermo- 

 meter 70. 



"We managed to get our mules up to a little 

 bench about a hundred feet above the lakes, and 

 turned them loose to graze. During our rough 

 ride to this place they had exhibited a wonderful 

 surefootedness. Parts of the defile were filled with 

 angular, sharp fragments of rock, three or four and 

 eight or ten feet cubic ; and among these they had 

 worked their way, leaping from one narrow point to 

 another, rarely making a false step, and giving us 

 no occasion to dismount. Having divested our- 

 selves of every unnecessary encumbrance, we com- 

 menced the ascent. This time, like experienced 

 travellers, we did not 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 one thousand eight hundred 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 

 parflSche, 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, 



L 14* 



