Chapter Vili. 



heard as tliev crash down into the valley. The rocky 

 hnttresses of Elena and Savoia Peaks, and the precipitous 

 clitis of the nortli face of Mount Baker, overtopped towards 

 the east hv Moore and Wollaston Peaks, are especially grand. 



After skirting the foot of the south-west ridge of Mt. Speke, 

 they pursued their way nearly on a level under the western 

 cliff, keeping high and not far from the glacier. This glacier 

 has withdrawn recently, leaving a long fringe of rocks and 

 moraine detritus, under which a few senecios and groups of 

 helichrysuni have taken root. 



A little further on, the tent was pitched on a narrow^ 

 strip of laud l:>etween two oval lakes and the margin of the 

 Speke Glacier. This is Camp Y, at a height of 14,682 feet 

 above the sea-level, immediately under Vittorio Emanuele 

 Peak. There were only a few senecios at this point, and 

 the natives sought for shelter lower down, where there was 

 abundance of wood. The sky was clear overhead, but round 

 the jDeaks and in the valleys lingered fogs, which hid the 

 greater part of the landscape. A little further and lower 

 down was a tliird lake, somewhat larger than the two which 

 were near the camp. 



On the next day, first climbing the rocks and then up the 

 glacier, following an easy western ridge, witliout once using the 

 rope, in a little more than an hour they reached the summit of 

 Vittorio Emanuele Peak, 16,080 feet above the sea-level. It was 

 6. .30 in the morning and they were already surrounded by dense 

 fop;. Thev remained nearlv eight hours on the summit in vain 

 expectation of an opening in the fog, which never came. There 

 was a light, variable wind, and every now and then a snowfldl, 

 changing occasionally into brief and violent showers of hail. 

 At one time they were enveloped in a cloud so charged with 



234 



