A NIGHT ON SHASTA'S SUMMIT 



as safe as anybody in the lowlands, lying like 

 a squirrel in a warm, fluffy nest, busied about 

 my own affairs and wishing only to be let alone. 

 Later, however, a trail could not have been 

 broken for a horse, and some of the camp fur- 

 niture would have had to be abandoned. On 

 the fifth day I returned to Sisson's, and from 

 that comfortable base made excursions, as the 

 weather permitted, to the Black Butte, to the 

 foot of the Whitney Glacier, around the base 

 of the mountain, to Rhett and Klamath Lakes, 

 to the Modoc region and elsewhere, develop- 

 ing many interesting scenes and experiences. 



But the next spring, on the other side of this 

 eventful winter, I saw and felt still more of the 

 Shasta snow. For then it was my fortune to 

 get into the very heart of a storm, and to be 

 held in it for a long time. 



On the 28th of April [1875] I led a party up 

 the mountain for the purpose of making a sur- 

 vey of the summit with reference to the loca- 

 tion of the Geodetic monument. On the 30th, 

 accompanied by Jerome Fay, I made another 

 ascent to make some barometrical observations, 

 the day intervening between the two ascents 

 being devoted to estabhshing a camp on the 

 extreme edge of the timber-line. Here, on our 

 red trachyte bed, we obtained two hours of 

 shallow sleep broken for occasional glimpses 



67 



