The Mountaineer al 
taken during the ascent, but they do scant justice to the won- 
derful snow and ice formations, dreadful in their fantastic 
beauty. 
The members of our party agreed that each man should in 
turn break or chop steps as necessary, which plan was adhered 
to throughout the climb, the present worker falling in at the 
rear when his “trick” was ended, the second in line succeeding 
him. No special precautions were taken, each person seeming 
capable of caring for himself. The mascot of the journey was 
an emergency bandage, which was not used. One regulation 
army canteen of oatmeal water supplied two men. This mix- 
ture proved much superior to either tea or undiluted water. 
Our route to a point within one thousand feet of the crater 
was identical with that of the scouts who had been sent from 
the main body two days previously, with the object of ascer- 
taining the most feasible way to conduct a large number to 
the top. On these dangerous climbs nothing is left to chance. 
At an elevation of more than thirteen thousand feet they had 
encountered a seemingly impassable barrier, a deep crevasse. 
Professor Flett, whose wide experience on the mountain emi- 
nently fitted him to be our pilot, now took the lead and non- 
chalantly “hit” the ugliest looking trail the writer has ever 
gazed upon. 
The little band seattering out at intervals in uncertain and 
wobbly effort to follow leader, the writer was left alone for a 
few minutes beneath a peculiarly formed impending mass of 
snow and ice, which imagination easily likened to the jaws of 
some vast pre-historic monster suddenly frozen by tremendous 
climatic changes, even in the act of devouring its prey. Stand- 
ing there sheltered from the wind, no living being in view, the 
earth obscured by floating mists, there was gained for the first 
time an appreciation of that “eternal silence of the hills.” In 
an effort to understand the ambition which drives us into the 
very jaws of death after such fruitless victories, thought turned 
upon the glory of man’s achievement in the past, the majesty 
of his probable destiny. For out of that eternal silence has he 
come, climbing slowly, painfully, through the countless eons 
which have vanished in a trackless past. Experience born of 
the bitterness of misfortune and defeat, his only guide, has 
taught him how to conquer every obstacle which ignorance and 
superstititon have thrown across his path, yes, even Death 
