Irised Cloud Banners. 151 



covered precipices. The plain was crossed by huge crevasses, 

 some of which were fully a mile in length ; but by traveling 

 around their ends or crossing snow-bridges we slowly worked 

 our way onward toward St. Elias. Threading our way through 

 the labyrinth of yawning gulfs, we at last, after the sun had gone 

 down behind the great pyramid toward the west, found a con- 

 venient place on the snow, near a blue pond of water, on which 

 to pass the night. Everything was snow-covered in the vast 

 landscape except the most precipitous cliffs, and these were 

 dangerous to approach, owing to the avalanches that frequently 

 fell from them. The weather continued fine. The night was 

 clear and the stars were unusually brilliant. Everything seemed 

 favorable for pushing on. The way ahead presented such even 

 snow-slopes and seemed so free from crevasses that we decided 

 to leave our tent and blankets in the morning and, taking with 

 us as little as possible of impedimenta, endeavor to reach the 

 summit of St. Elias. 



Highest Point reached. 



Rising at three o'clock on the morning of August 22, we started 

 for the summit of St. Elias, taking with us only our water-proof 

 coats, some food, and the necessary instruments. The higher 

 mountain summits were no longer clearly defined, but in the 

 early light it was impossible to tell whether or not the day was 

 to be fair. From the highest and sharpest peaks, cloud banners 

 were streaming off towards the southeast, showing that^the higher 

 air currents were in rapid movement. Vapor banks in the east 

 were flushed with long streamers of light as the sun rose, but 

 soon faded to a dull ashen gray, while the cloud banners between 

 us and the sun became brilliant like the halo seen around the 

 moon when the sky is covered with fleecy clouds. This was the 

 first time in my experience that I had seen colored banners 

 waving from the mountain tojos. 



We found the snow-surface hard, and made rapid headway 

 up the glacier. Our only difficulty was the uncertainty of the 

 early light, which rendered it impossible to tell the slope of the 

 uneven snow-surfaces. The light was so evenly diffused that 

 there were no shadows. The rare beauty of that silent, wintry 

 landscape, so delicate in its pearly half tones and so softly 

 lighted, was unreal and fairy-like. The winds were still ; but 



