84 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



of the loftiest mountain for hundreds of miles around. If ten hurricanes 

 had been in deadly strife with each other it could have been no worse. 

 The winds, as if locked in mortal embrace, tore along, whirling and twist- 

 ing, and mingling their roaring with the flinty rattling of the snow grains 

 in one confused din." Dr. Ball did not, however, actually reach the sum- 

 mit, and, after many hours spent in the endeavor, buffeting the storm, he 

 was obliged to abandon his purpose, and set out to descend. But his 

 footprints had been obliterated by the storm, and, losing his way, he 

 found himself unable to judge from what direction he had come. He 

 pursued his way downward, however, till he reached the stunted and 

 tangled growth of spruce at the upper limit of trees. Here night came 

 on, and, building himself a sort of shelter from the wind and snow with 

 the aid of an umbrella, he lay down, knowing that to yield to sleep would 

 be fatal. The night was bitterly cold, water being frozen thick at the 

 camp below in a room adjoining one which had a fire. But even in this 

 situation, he remarks, " It was not without some satisfaction that I looked 

 around me, and beheld the results of my labors. Notwithstanding the 

 open front, a bed of snow, a frosty rock on one side, a congealed mass 

 of snow and brush on the other, I was happy in the reflection that my 

 lot here was infinitely better than it could have been outside. Drawing 

 myself up into as small a compass as possible under my covering, I pre- 

 pared to pass a long, long night, the longest of my life." He says that 

 he was enabled to keep awake by the multiplicity of thoughts which 

 crowded through his mind, and by taking constrained and almost con- 

 stantly varied positions. " When the first rays of light appeared in the 

 morning, so much sooner had the night passed than I had expected, that 

 I presumed the moon was shining. My body was stiff and rigid with 

 cold, and pressing upon the ground with such a senseless weight, that it 

 seemed to me I had become a part of the mountain itself." The second 

 day the view was still obscured by clouds, and was spent by him wan- 

 dering about in the snow. Unable to obtain a sight of the Glen house 

 below, and not daring to descend into the mazes of the forests, he returned 

 to spend a second night in the same place as before. During this night, 

 he says, " the thought occurred, What if I am obliged to stay out a night 

 after this, without food, drink, or sleep ? After a short consideration, 

 taking into account my present state, that which had passed, and the 



