A NEAR VIEW OF THE HIGH SIERRA 63 



No; I must wait till next summer. I would only 

 approach the mountain now, and inspect it, creep 

 about its flanks, learn what I could of its history, 

 holding myself ready to flee on the approach of the 

 first storm-cloud. But we little know until tried 

 how much of the uncontrollable there is in us, urg 

 ing across glaciers and torrents, and up dangerous 

 heights, let the judgment forbid as it may. 



I succeeded in gaining the foot of the cliff on the 

 eastern extremity of the glacier, and there dis 

 covered the mouth of a narrow avalanche gully, 

 through which I began to climb, intending to follow 

 it as far as possible, and at least obtain some fine 

 wild views for my pains. Its general course is 

 oblique to the plane of the mountain-face, and the 

 metamorphic slates of which the mountain is built 

 are cut by cleavage planes in such a way that they 

 weather off in angular blocks, giving rise to irregu 

 lar steps that greatly facilitate climbing on the 

 sheer places. I thus made my way into a wilder 

 ness of crumbling spires and battlements, built to 

 gether in bewildering combinations, and glazed in 

 many places with a thin coating of ice, which I 

 had to hammer off with stones. The situation was 

 becoming gradually more perilous; but, having 

 passed several dangerous spots, I dared not think 

 of descending ; for, so steep was the entire ascent, 

 one would inevitably fall to the glacier in case a 

 single misstep were made. Knowing, therefore, the 

 tried danger beneath, I became all the more anxious 

 concerning the developments to be made above, 

 and began to be conscious of a vague foreboding of 

 what actually befell; not that I was given to fear, 



