MOUNT ST. ELIAS AND PRINCE WILLIAM SOUND. 179 



everything in front of it, deporting rocks and dis- 

 placing icebergs as though, they were straws. "We 

 had kindled bonfires to show our whereabouts to the 

 lost explorer, while the glacier itself was advancing 

 and burying the forest. Everything, including the 

 very elements, seemed leagued together in destruction. 

 The professor was unable to proceed farther. Next 

 day was spent in traversing the great Tyndall Glacier. 

 Here my boots gave out, but after a delay of half an 

 hour I managed to patch the rent with the " tongue" 

 cut out of one of Mr. Schwatka' s boots. Our camp- 

 ing place that night was our last and highest, and 

 consequently our coldest. Next morning, at the early 

 hour of half-past four, John "Woods (a miner), Mr. 

 Schwatka and I roped ourselves together in the 

 order given, and taking Esquimaux coats of reindeer 

 skin, scientific instruments and the whole of the 

 remaining provisions, started with our ice axes to 

 attack the peak. At three in the afternoon Mr. 

 Schwatka gave in ; he was thoroughly out of training 

 and weighed no less than 18 stone, or 250 Ibs. as he 

 called it, and was in a most alarming condition from 

 repeatedly getting chilled on the ice while in a state 

 of perspiration. I have since been assured by expe- 

 rienced climbers that if a snow-bridge had given way 

 beneath his weight, the rope with which he was 

 attached to us must have broken or Woods and I 

 would have been dragged after him into a crevasse. 

 Soon afterwards I sent Woods back to attend to my 

 friend, and at seven in the evening found I had 



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