FIRST SUCCESSFUL ASCENT, 1870 



and warrior, and a mighty hunter, had ascended part 

 way up the mountain, and had encountered some of these 

 dangers, but he fortunately turned back in time to escape 

 destruction ; and no other Indian had ever gone so far. 



Finding that his words did not produce the desired 

 effect, he assured us that, if we persisted in attempting 

 the ascent, he would wait three days for our return, 

 and would then proceed to Olympia and inform our 

 friends of our death ; and he begged us to give him a 

 paper (a written note) to take to them, so that they 

 might believe his story. Sluiskin's manner during this 

 harangue was earnest in the extreme, and he was un- 

 doubtedly sincere in his forebodings. After we had 

 retired to rest, he kept up a most dismal chant, or dirge, 

 until late in the night. The dim, white, spectral mass 

 towering so near, the roar of the torrents below us, and 

 the occasional thunder of avalanches, several of which 

 fell during the night, added to the weird effect of Sluis- 

 kin's song. 



The next morning we moved two miles farther up the 

 ridge and made camp in the last clump of trees, quite 

 within the limit of perpetual snow. Thence, with 

 snow-spikes upon our feet and Alpine staff in hand, we 

 went up the snow-fields to reconnoiter the best line of 

 ascent. We spent four hours, walking fast, in reaching 

 the foot of the steep, abrupt part of the mountain. 

 After carefully scanning the southern approaches, we 

 decided to ascend on the morrow by a steep, rocky 

 ridge that seemed to lead up to the snowy crown. 



Our camp was pitched on a high knoll crowned by a 

 grove of balsam firs, near a turbulent glacial torrent. 

 About nine o'clock, after we had lain down for the 

 night, the firs round our camp took fire and suddenly 

 burst out in a vivid conflagration. The night was dark 

 and windy, and the scene the vast, dim outlines of 

 Takhoma, the white snow-fields, the roaring torrent, 

 the crackling blaze of the burning trees was strikingly 

 wild and picturesque. 



