FIRST SUCCESSFUL ASCENT, 1870 



the Nisqually to Bear Prairie. Besides, it was evidently 

 impossible for Van Trump, in his bruised and injured 

 state, to retrace our rough route over the mountains. 

 Leaving him as comfortable as possible, with all our 

 scanty stock of flour and marmots, sufficient to last 

 him nearly a week in case of need, I started imme- 

 diately after dinner, with Sluiskin leading the way, 

 to explore this new route. The Indian had opposed 

 the attempt strenuously, insisting with much urgency 

 that the stream flowed through canyons impossible for 

 us to traverse. He now gradually veered away from 

 the course of the stream, until ere-long he was leading 

 directly up the steep mountain range upon our former 

 route, when I called him back peremptorily, and kept 

 him in the rear for a little distance. Traveling through 

 open timber, over ground rapidly descending, we came 

 at the end of two miles to where the stream is hemmed 

 in between one of the long ridges or spurs from Ta- 

 khoma and the high mountain-chain on the south. 

 The stream, receiving many affluents on both sides, its 

 clear waters soon discolored by the yeasty glacial tor- 

 rents, here loses its peaceful flow, and for upwards of 

 three miles rushes furiously down a narrow, broken, and 

 rocky bed in a succession of falls and cascades of great 

 picturesque beauty. With much toil and difficulty 

 we picked our way over a wide "talus" of huge, broken 

 granite blocks and bowlders, along the foot of a vast 

 mountain of solid granite on the south side of the river, 

 until near the end of the defile, then crossed the stream, 

 and soon after encountered a still larger branch coming 

 from the north, direct from Takhoma, the product, 

 doubtless, of the glaciers on the southern and south- 

 western sides. Fording this branch just above its con- 

 fluence with the other, we followed the general course 

 of the river, now unmistakably the Nisqually, for 

 about four miles ; then, leaving it, we struck off nearly 

 south through the forest for three miles, and emerged 

 upon the Bear Prairie. The distance was about thir- 

 ty 



