'TPifi Btfe on t^i (RocRieff 



began to burst through between the trees. I was 

 at an altitude of about eleven thousand feet and 

 a short distance from the head of Trap Creek. 

 Rain, hail, and snow fell in turn, and the light- 

 ning began frequently to strike the rocks. With 

 the beginning of the lightning my muscles ceased 

 to be troubled with either twitching or rigidity. 

 For the two hours between 2 and 4 p. m. the crash 

 and roll of thunder was incessant. I counted 

 twenty-three times that the lightning struck the 

 rocks, but I did not see it strike a tree. The 

 clouds were low, and the wind came from the 

 east and the northeast, then from the west. 



About four o'clock, I broke through the snow, 

 tumbled into Trap Creek, and had to swim a little. 

 This stream was really very swift, and ran in 

 a narrow gulch, but it was blocked by snow and 

 by tree-limbs swept down by the flood, and a pond 

 had been formed. It was crowded with a deep 

 deposit of snow which rested on a shelf of ice. 

 This covering was shattered and uplifted by the 

 swollen stream, and I had slipped on the top of 

 the gulch and tumbled in. Once in, the swift 

 water tugged at me to pull me under ; the cakes 



94 



