126 I. C. Russell — Expedition to Mount St. Elias. 



island, where all was sunshine and summer, was great. Uncer- 

 tain as to what would be the wisest course, we packed our 

 blankets and started slowly down the mountain, looking anx- 

 iously for signs that the storm had really passed. 



An hour after sunrise a rift in the mist above us revealed the 

 wonderful blue of the heavens, and allowed a flood of sunlight 

 to jjour down upon the white fields beneath. Never was the 

 August sun more welcome. The mists vanished before its magic 

 touch, leaving here and there fleecy vaj)or-wreaths festooned along 

 the mountain side ; as the clouds disappeared, peak after peak 

 came into view, and snow-domes and glaciers, never seen before, 

 one by one revealed themselves to our astonished eyes. When 

 the curtain was lifted we found ourselves in a new world, more 

 wild and rugged than any we had yet beheld. There was 

 not a tree in sight, and nothing to suggest green fields or flowery 

 hill-sides, except on a fcAV of the lower mountain spurs, where 

 brilliant Alpine blossoms added a touch of color to the pale land- 

 scape. All else was stern, silent, motionless winter. 



The glacier, clear and white, without a rock on its broken sur- 

 face, looked from a little distance like a vast snow-covered 

 meadow. We were about a mile above the lower limit of the 

 snow-fields, where the blue ice of the glacier comes 'Out from be- 

 neath the neve. The blue ice was deeply buried, and could only 

 be seen in the deepest crevasses. Across the glacier rose the 

 angular cliffs and tajjering spires of the Hitchcock range. Every 

 ravine and gulch in its rugged sides was occupied by glaciers, 

 many of which were so broken and crevassed that they looked 

 like frozen cataracts. 



Cheered by the bright skies and sun-warmed air, we pushed 

 on up the glacier, taking the center of the stream in order to 

 avoid the crevasses, which were most numerous along its borders. 

 Two or three miles above our first camp we found a place where 

 a thin layer of broken shale covered the snow, at a sufficient dis- 

 tance from the steep slopes above to be out of the reach of ava- 

 lanches. We there established our second camp after leaving 

 Blossom island, dried our blankets, and spent the remainder of 

 the day basking in the sunlight and gathering energy for coming 

 emergencies. 



We found the neve of the Marvine glacier differing greatly 

 from the loAver or icy portion previously traversed. Instead of 

 ice with blue and white bands, as is common lower down, the 



