106 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



return to Waumbek station, an old building a half mile below us, and there try to keep 

 ourselves from freezing by brisk exercise. Mr. Clough emphatically vetoed this as a 

 most dangerous and impracticable proposition, saying that our only hope consisted in 

 pushing upward with all our might. 



Here we became separated : three of the party left the track, and Mr. Kimball will- 

 ingly left behind his luggage in order to continue the ascent. By thus leaving the 

 track we escaped liability to falls and bruises, but found ourselves often getting buried 

 to our waists in snow, and forced to exert our utmost strength to drag ourselves out and 

 advance. We repeatedly called to Mr. Bracy, who had kept on the track as we sup- 

 posed, but could get no answer. The roar of the tempest overcame our utmost vocal 

 efforts ; and the cloud of frozen vapor, that lashed us so furiously as it hugged us in its 

 chilling embrace, was so dense that no object could be seen at a distance of ten paces. 

 Against such remorseless blasts, no human being could keep integrity of muscle and 

 remain erect. We could only go on together a little way, and then throw ourselves down 

 for a few moments to recover breath and strength. We had many times repeated this, 

 when Mr. Kimball became so utterly exhausted as to make it impossible for him to take 

 another step. He called to the others to leave him, and save themselves, if possible. 

 The noble and emphatic "Never!" uttered by the manly Clough, whose sturdy muscle 

 was found able to back his will, aroused him to another effort. The two stronger 

 gentlemen, whose habits of life and superior physical powers gave hope of deliverance 

 for themselves, were both immovable in the determination that our fate should be one, 

 let that be what it must. 



The situation was one of momentous peril, especially as to Mr. Kimball, whose 

 exhaustion was now so extreme that he was wholly indifferent to the fate that seemed 

 to impend, only begging that he might be left to that sleep from whose embrace there 

 was left no power of resistance. Still there was forced a listless drag onward, mostly 

 in the interests of his companions, and in obedience to their potent wills. After this 

 sort we struggled on a few rods at a time, falling together, between each effort, to rest 

 and gain new strength. With the wind at 70 miles per hour, and the thermometer 

 down to 7 , as was found after arriving at the observatory, we came at length to 

 "Lizzie Bourne's monument," only thirty rods from the observatory. It took more 

 than a half hour's time to make this last thirty rods. Even the stronger ones had 

 become wearied by their unusual exertions, and had not this been the case their prog- 

 ress would have been slow, for it was found absolutely impossible to force on the one 

 who had now become unable to regard his own peril, more than a few feet at a time. 

 He would then sink down into a deep sleep, while the others would employ the time in 

 chafing his hands and feet, and, after a few moments, manage to arouse him and make 

 another struggle onward. 



Mr. Bracy, too, had a narrow escape. Losing his foothold on the track, he at one 

 time fell through into a gorge beneath the trestle-work. Exhausted, bruised, and dis- 

 couraged, he crawled beneath the ruins of the old "Gulf house," which were found to 

 be at hand, thinking he would try to weather the storm there ; but finding himself, in 



