Across Dome Pass. 147 



theatre lying between Mount St. Elias and Motint Newton. On 

 the day we discovered Dome pass, we pressed on down the west- 

 ern snow-slope and reached the side of the Agassiz glacier, 

 Avhich we found greatly crevassed ; selecting a camping place on 

 a rocky spur, we returned to Camp 15, and two days later estab- 

 lished camp at the place chosen. 



Camp 16 was similar in many ways to Camp 14. It had about 

 the same altitude ; it was at the western end of a rugged moun- 

 tain spur, and on the immediate border of a large southward- 

 flowing glacier. On the lower portions of the cliffs, near at 

 hand, there were velvety patches of brilliant Alpine flowers 

 mingled with thick bunches of wiry grass and clumj^s of delicate 

 ferns. Most conspicuous of all the showy plants, so bright and 

 lovely in the vast wilderness of snow, were the purple lupines. 

 Already the flowers on the lower portions of their spikes had 

 matured, and pods covered with a thick coating of wooly hairs 

 were beginning to be conspicuous. There are no bees and but- 

 terflies in these isolated gardens, but brown flies with long- 

 pointed wings were abundant. A gray bird, a little larger than 

 a sparrow, was seen flitting in and out of crevasses near the 

 border of the ice, apparently in quest of insects. Once, while 

 stretched at full length on the flowery carj^et enjo3dng the warm 

 sunlight, a humming bird flashed past me. Occasionally the 

 hoarse cries of ravens were heard among the cliffs, but they 

 seldom ventured near enough to be seen. These few suggestions 

 werp all there was to remind us of the summer fields and shady 

 forests in far-away lands. • 



Up the Agassiz Glacier. 



From Camp 16 Kerr and I made an excursion across the 

 Agassiz glacier, while Stamy and Lindsley returned to a lower 

 camp for additional supplies. We found the glacier greatly 

 crevassed and. the way across more diflicult than on any of the 

 ice-fields we had previously traversed ; but by dint of persever- 

 ance, and after many changes in our course, we succeeded at last 

 in -reaching the western bank, and saw that by climbing a preci- 

 pice bordering an ice-cascade we could gain a plateau above? 

 which we knew from previous observations to be comparatively 

 little broken. We returned to camp, and on August 18 began 

 the ascent of the glacier in earnest. We were favored in the task 

 bv brilliant Aveather. 



