TtKft. Bif* on 



clouds closed in, and everything was fogged. A 

 chilly half-hour's wait and the clouds broke up. 

 I had lost my ten-foot staff in the snow-slide, and 

 feeling for precipices without it would probably 

 bring me out upon another snow-cornice, so I 

 took no chances. 



I was twelve thousand five hundred feet above 

 sea-level when the clouds broke up, and from this 

 great height I looked down upon what seemed 

 to be the margin of the polar world. It was 

 intensely cold, but the sun shone with dazzling 

 glare, and the wilderness of snowy peaks came 

 out like a grand and jagged ice-field in the far 

 south. Halos and peculiarly luminous balls floated 

 through the color-tinged and electrical air. The 

 horizon had a touch of cobalt blue, and on the 

 dome above, white flushes appeared and disap- 

 peared like faint auroras. After five hours on 

 these silent but imposing heights I struck my 

 first day's trail, and began a wild and merry coast 

 down among the rocks and trees to my starting- 

 place. 



I hope to have more winter excursions, but per- 

 haps I have had my share. At the bare thought 



26 



