The Mountaineer 13 
smooth, dry crevice was passed. A third crevice seemed to 
offer a chance, although the crumbling rock offered no secure 
foot and handholds, and once loosened and precipitated down 
the steep mountain wall by the quick ascent would render a 
return by the same gap very doubtful if not impossible. Mr. 
Ellis, however, ascended this third crevice, taking a chance 
of finding a different way to return, which he fortunately sub- 
sequently discovered—hanging by his hands and dropping 
about six feet to a precarious landing. 
The summit, reached about the middle of the afternoon, 
was found to rise to an altitude of 12,125 feet. It is covered 
with fragments of green lime shale tinged with red iron stain. 
The whole top would long since have disintegrated and fallen 
away but for the bastion of limestone just below. The crown is 
split in almost equal parts, the south summit being only a 
few feet higher than the north. Mr. Ellis made his records, 
placed them in a bottle and deposited them in a cairn which 
he hastily built. Hammond is the loftiest peak vet conquered 
in the Selkirks; but she must look to her laurels, as many 
not distant peaks are evidently higher. 
We returned to the mine rather late in the evening. The 
climb was certainly strenuous. Ellis found, on subsequently 
returning to his ranch, that he had lost fifteen pounds, and the 
strain was so great that even several weeks later he had not 
entirely recovered. 
A later trip of a week to the head of Toby Creek, culminat- 
ing at Earl Grey’s Pass, and up the North Fork of the Creek, 
was full of striking features. Our trail, constructed last vear 
for Earl Grey’s party, so that they might see some of the 
grandest scenery of British Columbia, led us up through the 
floor of the valley, the grade of which rises so slightly that it 
is being seriously considered as a grade-eliminating line of the 
railroad. But, while the valley bed rises but slightly, the 
mountains loom higher and higher, beautiful waterfalls leap 
down the precipices, snow-topped and glaciered mountains 
greet the eye, and you presently find yourself in the heart of 
an Alpine world. 
Spending the night in the fine cabin built for the Grey 
party, overlooked by two towering “Egyptic’-looking rock 
figures which the Earl christened “the Pharaohs,” we got a 
good start on a fine morning for the head of the pass. The 
