THE PASSES 79 



dens and meadows, and interesting animals only 

 those will ever know who give the freest and most 

 buoyant portion of their lives to climbing and see 

 ing for themselves. 



To the timid traveler, fresh from the sedimen 

 tary levels of the lowlands, these highways, how 

 ever picturesque and grand, seem terribly forbid 

 ding cold, dead, gloomy gashes in the bones of 

 the mountains, and of all Nature's ways the ones 

 to be most cautiously avoided. Yet they are full 

 of the finest and most telling examples of Nature's 

 love; and though hard to travel, none are safer. 

 For they lead through regions that lie far above 

 the ordinary haunts of the devil, and of the pesti 

 lence that walks in darkness. True, there are 

 innumerable places where the careless step will be 

 the last step; and a rock falling from the cliffs 

 may crush without warning like lightning from 

 the sky ; but what then ? Accidents in the moun 

 tains are less common than in the lowlands, and 

 these mountain mansions are decent, delightful, 

 even divine, places to die in, compared with the 

 doleful chambers of civilization. Few places in 

 this world are more dangerous than home. Fear 

 not, therefore, to try the mountain-passes. They 

 will kill care, save you from deadly apathy, set you 

 free, and call forth every faculty into vigorous, 

 enthusiastic action. Even the sick should try 

 these so-called dangerous passes, because for every 

 unfortunate they kill, they cure a thousand. 



All the passes make their steepest ascents on 

 the eastern flank. On this side the average rise is 

 not far from a thousand feet to the mile, while on 



