154. /. C. Russell — Expedition to Mount St. Ellas. 



and there prepared a lunch. It was then discovered that we had 

 been mistaken as to the quantity of oil in our cans ; we found 

 scarcely enough to cook a single meal. To attempt to remain 

 several days in the snow with this small supply of fuel seemed 

 hazardous, and Mr. Kerr volunteered to descend and overtake the 

 men at the lower camp, procure some oil, and return the follow- 

 ing day. We then separated, Mr. Kerr starting down the moun- 

 tain, leaving me with a double load, weighing between sixty and 

 seventy pounds, to carry through the deep snow to the high 

 camp previously occupied. 



Alone in the highest Camp. 



Trudging wearily on, I reached the high camp at sunset, and 

 pitched my tent in the excavation previously occupied. An 

 alpenstock was used for one tent-pole, and snow saturated with 

 water, piled up in a column, for the other ; the snow froze in a 

 few minutes, and held the tent securely. The ends of the ridge- 

 rope were then stamped into the snow, and water was poured 

 over them ; the edges of the tent were treated in a similar man- 

 ner, and my shelter was ready for occupation. After cooking 

 some supper over the oil-stove, I rolled myself in a blanket and 

 slept the sleep of the weary. I was awakened in the morning 

 by snow drifting into my tent, and on looking out discovered 

 that I was again caught in a blinding storm or mist of snow. 

 The storm raged all day and all night, and continued without, 

 interruption until the evening of the second day. The coal oil 

 becoming exhausted, a can was filled with bacon grease, in which 

 a cotton rag was placed for a wick ; and over this " witch lamp " 

 I did my cooking during the remainder of my stay. The snow, 

 falling steadily, soon buried my tent, already surrounded on 

 three sides by an icy wall higher than my head, and it was only 

 by almost constant exertion that it was kept from being crushed 

 in. With a pint basin for a shovel I cleared the tent as best I 

 could, and several times during the day re-excavated the hole 

 leading down to the pond, which had long since disappeared 

 beneath the level plain of white. The excavation of a tunnel in 

 the snow was also begun in the expectation that the tent would 

 become uninhabitable. The following night it became impossi- 

 ble to keep the tent clear in spite of energetic efforts, and early 

 in the morning it was crushed in by a great weight of snow, 



