AN ASCENT OF MOUNT RAINIER 



it might well fire the dullest observer to des 

 perate enthusiasm. Long we gazed in silent 

 admiration, buried in tall daisies and anem 

 ones by the side of a snowbank. Higher we 

 could not go with the animals and find food 

 for them and wood for our own camp-fires, 

 for just beyond this lies the region of ice, 

 with only here and there an open spot on 

 the ridges in the midst of the ice, with dwarf 

 alpine plants, such as saxifrages and drabas, 

 which reach far up between the glaciers, and 

 low mats of the beautiful bryanthus, while 

 back of us were the gardens and abundance 

 of everything that heart could wish. Here 

 we lay all the afternoon, considering the lilies 

 and the lines of the mountains with reference 

 to a way to the summit. 



At noon next day we left camp and began 

 our long climb. We were in light marching 

 order, save one who pluckily determined to 

 carry his camera to the summit. At night, 

 after a long easy climb over wide and smooth 

 fields of ice, we reached a narrow ridge, at an 

 elevation of about ten thousand feet above 

 the sea, on the divide between the glaciers of 

 the Nisqually and the Cowlitz. Here we lay as 

 best we could, waiting for another day, with 

 out fire of course, as we were now many miles 

 beyond the timber-line and without much to 



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