FIRST SUCCESSFUL ASCENT, 1870 



again. Early as it was, the chill of the frosty night still 

 in the air, the mosquitoes renewed their attacks, and 

 proved as innumerable and vexatious as ever. 



Continuing our march, we crossed many beds of snow, 

 and drank again and again from the icy rills which 

 flowed out of them. The mountains were covered with 

 stunted mountain-ash and low, stubby firs with short, 

 bushy branches, and occasionally a few pines. Many 

 slopes were destitute of trees but covered with luxuri- 

 ant grass and the greatest profusion of beautiful flowers 

 of vivid hues. This was especially the case with the 

 southern slopes, while the northern sides of the moun- 

 tains were generally wooded. We repeatedly ate ber- 

 ries, and an hour afterwards ascended to where berries 

 of the same kind were found scarcely yet formed. The 

 country was much obscured with smoke from heavy 

 fires which had been raging on the Cowlitz the last two 

 days. But when at length, after climbing for hours 

 an almost perpendicular peak, creeping on hands and 

 knees over loose rocks, and clinging to scanty tufts of 

 grass where a single slip would have sent us rolling a 

 thousand feet down to destruction, we reached the 

 highest crest and looked over, we exclaimed that we 

 were already well repaid for all our toil. Nothing can 

 convey an idea of the grandeur and ruggedness of the 

 mountains. Directly in front, and apparently not over 

 two miles distant, although really twenty, old Takhoma 

 loomed up more gigantic than ever. We were far above 

 the level of the lower snow-line on Takhoma. The high 

 peak upon which we clung seemed the central core or 

 focus of all the mountains around, and on every side we 

 looked down vertically thousands of feet, deep down into 

 vast, terrible defiles, black and fir-clothed, which 

 stretched away until lost in the distance and smoke. 

 Between them, separating one from another, the 

 mountain-walls rose precipitously and terminated in 

 bare, columnar peaks of black basaltic or volcanic rock, 

 as sharp as needles. It seemed incredible that any 



