A Dangerous Mountain Camp. 135 



Having learned all that I could of the geology of the cliff, and 

 the gathering clouds rendering it unnecessary to climb the sum- 

 mits above, we descended with even more difficulty than we had 

 encountered on our Avay up, and met Lindsley as he reached the 

 pass. Resuming our packs, we started on, knoAAdng that Crum- 

 back would follow our trail ; and after two hours' hard tramping 

 over a snow surface rendered somewhat soft by the heat of the 

 day, but fortunately little crevassed, we reached the place chosen 

 for our camp. Crumback soon joined us, and we pitched our 

 tent for the night. The place chosen was on a little island of 

 debris, the farthest out we could discover from the base of the 

 great cliff on the north. We judged that we should there be 

 safe from avalanches, although the screech and hiss of stones 

 falling from the cliff were heard many times during the night. 



Lindsley and Crumback, on revisiting the site of our camp 

 two clays later, found that a tremendous avalanche of snow and 

 rocks had in the mean time fallen from the cliffs and ploughed 

 its way out upon the glacier to within fifteen or twenty feet of 

 where we had passed the night. They remarked that if the 

 avalanche had occurred while we were in camp, our tent would 

 not have been reached, but that we should probably have been 

 scared to death by the roar. 



First full View of St. Elias. 



Leaving Crumback and Lindsley to make our camp as com- 

 fortable as possible, Kerr and I pressed on with the object of 

 seeing all we could of the country ahead before the afternoon 

 sunlight faded into twilight. Mount St. Elias had been shut 

 out from view, either by clouds or by intervening mountains, 

 for several days ; but it was evident that on approaching the end 

 of the Pinnacle pass fault-scarp we should behold it again, and 

 comparatively near at hand. 



Continuing down the even snow-slope, in which there were but 

 few crevasses, the view became broader and broader as we ad- 

 vanced, and at length the great pyramid forming the culminating 

 summit of all the region burst into full view. What a glorious 

 sight! The great mountain seemed higher and grander and 

 more regularly proportioned than any peak I had ever beheld 

 before. The white plain formed by the Seward glacier gave an 

 even foreground, broken by crevasses which, lessening in per- 

 spective, gave distance to the foot-hills forming the western mar- 



