Encamjjment in a Paradise. 113 



Wliile Kerr and Christie were away, I assisted the camp hands 

 in advancing to Blossom island. Our first day's work consisted 

 in packing loads across the Hayden glacier to the wooded hills 

 on its Avestern border, reached during the reconnoissance de- 

 scribed above. The weather was stormy, and a dense fog rolled 

 in from the ocean, obscuring the mountains, and compelling us 

 to find our way across the glacier as best we could without land- 

 marks. Patiently threading our way among crevasses, we at 

 length came in sight of the forests on the extremity of the moun- 

 tain spur toward the west, and concluded to camj) there until 

 the weather was more favorable. We climbed the bare slope 

 bordering the glacier, and forced our way through the dripping 

 vegetation to an open space beside a little stream and near some 

 aged spruce trees that would furnish good fuel for a camp-fire. 

 We were glad of a refuge, but did not fully appreciate the fact 

 that our tents were in a paradise of flowers until the next morn- 

 ing, when the sun shone clear and bright for a few hours. We 

 hailed \\\i\\ delight the world of summer beauty with which we 

 were surrounded. Our camp was in a little valley amid irregular 

 hills of debris left by the former ice invasion, each of which was 

 a rounded dome of flowers. The desolate ice-fields were com- 

 pletely shut out from view by the rank vegetation. On the slope 

 above us, dark spruce trees loaded with streamers of moss, and 

 seemingly many centuries old, formed a background for the floral 

 decoration with which the ground was everywhere covered. 

 Flowering plants and ferns w.ere massed in such dense luxuri- 

 ance that the streams were lost in gorgeous banks of bloom. 



Reluctantly we returned to Floral j)ass for another load of 

 camp supplies, and late in the afternoon pressed on to Blossom 

 island, where we again pitched our tents in rain and mist, and 

 again, when the storm cleared away, found ourselves in an un- 

 trodden paradise. Kerr and Christie rejoined us at Blossom 

 island on July 31, and we were once more ready for an advance. 



Blossom Island. 



Our camp on Blossom island was near a small pond of water 

 and close beside a thick grove of spruce trees on the western side 

 of the land-mass. The tents were so jilaced as to secure an un- 

 obstructed view to the westward; and they were visible, in turn, 

 to parties descending from the mountains toward the northwest, 

 whither our work soon led us. 



