MOUNT RAINIER 



smoke, above which the mountain towered two thou- 

 sand feet in the clear, cloudless ether. A solitary peak 

 far to the southeast, doubtless Mount Adams, and one 

 or two others in the extreme northern horizon, alone 

 protruded above the pall. On every side of the moun- 

 tain were deep gorges falling off precipitously thousands 

 of feet, and from these the thunderous sound of ava- 

 lanches would rise occasionally. Far below were the 

 wide-extended glaciers already described. The wind 

 was now a perfect tempest, and bitterly cold ; smoke 

 and mist were flying about the base of the mountian, 

 half hiding, half revealing its gigantic outlines ; and 

 the whole scene was sublimely awful. 



It was now five P.M. We had spent eleven hours of 

 unremitted toil in making the ascent, and, thoroughly 

 fatigued, and chilled by the cold, bitter gale, we saw 

 ourselves obliged to pass the night on the summit with- 

 out shelter or food, except our meagre lunch. It would 

 have been impossible to descend the mountain before 

 nightfall, and sure destruction to attempt it in darkness. 

 We concluded to return to a mass of rocks not far below, 

 and there pass the night as best we could, burrowing 

 in the loose debris. 



The middle peak of the mountain, however, was evi- 

 dently the highest, and we determined to first visit it. 

 Retracing our steps along the narrow crest of Peak 

 Success, as we named the scene of our triumph, we 

 crossed an intervening depression in the dome, and 

 ascended the middle peak, about a mile distant and 

 two hundred feet higher than Peak Success. Climbing 

 over a rocky ridge which crowns the summit, we found 

 ourselves within a circular crater two hundred yards 

 in diameter, filled with a solid bed of snow, and inclosed 

 with a rim of rocks projecting above the snow all around. 

 As we were crossing the crater on the snow, Van Trump 

 detected the odor of sulphur, and the next instant nu- 

 merous jets of steam and smoke were observed issuing 

 from the crevices of the rocks which formed the rim on 



