Rocky Mountains and Oregon. 195 
t was a strange place, the icy rock and the highest peak of the 
wers; and we 
country, where all animated nature seems at war; and, seizing him 
immediately, put him in at least a fit place—in the leaves of a large 
joined to the opinion of the oldest traders of the country, it is presum- 
ed that this is the highest peak of the Rocky Mountains. The day was 
had o 
ture, which was that of terrible convulsion. Parallel to its length, the 
ridge was split into chasms and fissures ; between which rose the thin 
lofty walls, terminated with slender minarets and columns, which is 
correctly represented in the view from the camp on Island lake. Ac+ 
cording to the barometer, the little crest of the wall on which we stood 
was three thousand five hundred and seventy feet above that place, 
and two thousand seven hundred and eighty above the little lakes at the 
bottom, immediately at our feet. Our camp at the Two Hills (an as- 
tronomical station) bore south 3° east, which, with a bearing afterward 
obtained from a fixed position, enabled us to locate t peak. The 
the least prolonged, expiring almost instantaneously. Having now 
made what observations our means afforded, we pr 
e had accomplished an object of laudable ambition, and beyond the 
strict order of our instructions. We had climbed the loftiest peak of 
the Rocky Mountains, and looked down upon the snow a thousand feet 
