246 FIELD COLUMBIAN MUSEUM ZOOLOGY, VOL. i. 



reported that it was impossible to go farther. We seemed to have 

 reached the stopping-place, and that wings were the only possible 

 means of locomotion in any direction save on our back trail. 



From certain points on the ridges fine views of Mt. Olympus were 

 obtained, and the great mountain loomed heavenward bearing its mighty 

 glaciers and fields of snow that glistened in the sun. Rumblings were 

 heard as if avalanches were descending; these succeeded by a crash after 

 a fe\\; seconds' interval, and this was imagined to be some swift moving 

 glacier on Olympus that reached the edge of a chasm, broke off and 

 fell into the gorge, possibly the canon of the Hoh, in a similar man- 

 ner as the Muir glacier is constantly throwing off bergs with explo- 

 sions like the discharges of artillery. 



Farther progress being impossible, I decided to retrace our 

 steps, descend the Elwah to a point where our first camp from 

 Port Angeles was made, and cross by a trail that led to Lakes 

 Southerland and Crescent, and then follow up the Solduck and 

 cross to the headwaters of the Bogashiel River, which is stated 

 to take its rise from one of the glaciers on Mt. Olympus. Great 

 fires were now raging in the mountains, as no rain had fallen for 

 six weeks, and dense smoke obscured all the view and effectually 

 put an end to photographing. A perfectly beaten and easy trail 

 runs along the Solduck, and horses travel it frequently, but from 

 the Solduck to the Bogashiel is another matter. . The trip to the lat- 

 ter river was successful, five elk having been obtained, but the ani- 

 mals were scarce and they were only procured after much toil and 

 privation. The country, when the vicinity of the snow range is 

 reached, is so rough and broken that it is next to impossible for a 

 man to travel over it, and to take horses is out of the question, and 

 ours were left for a month shut in a grassy place. Everything must 

 be carried on one's back, and every year the elk that remain are retir- 

 ing farther into the recesses of the mountains. The rainy season had 

 also set in, and out of thirty days it poured more or less in torrents 

 for twenty-eight. On this elk trip no collection of small mammals was 

 made. A fine series of fish was procured from the two lakes embrac- 

 ing every species known to inhabit these waters, and some new ones. 

 A list of these will be published by my chief assistant, Dr. S. E. 

 Meek. The trout in Lake Crescent grow to an enormous size, and 

 one specimen was taken that weighed thirteen pounds. Altogether 

 between five and six hundred specimens of mammals were obtained, 

 with few exceptions embracing all the species known to inhabit the 

 region, besides the fish above mentioned, and sundry reptiles and 

 insects. 



