A second Retreat. 157 



The day foil OAving the storm Avas bright and beautiful; the 

 sunlight was warm and pleasant, but the temperature in the 

 shadows was always below freezing. The surface of the snow 

 did not melt sufficiently during the day to freeze and form a 

 crust during the night. It thus became more and more appar- 

 ent that the season was too far advanced to alloAV the snow to 

 harden sufficiently for us to be able to climb the mountain. The 

 snow settled somewhat and changed its character, but even at 

 midday the crystals on the surface glittered as brilliantly in the 

 sunlight as they did in the early morning. Although the snow 

 did not melt, its surface was lowered slightly by evaporation. 

 The tracks of the raven, at first sunken a quarter of an inch in 

 the soft surface, after the first day of sunshine stood slightlj^ in 

 relief, but were still clearly defined. 



On the sixth day after seiDarating from my companions, judg- 

 ing that they must have returned at least to the camping place 

 where we had separated, I packed my blankets and what food 

 remained, abandoned the tent and oil-stove, and started to de- 

 scend the mountain. The snow had settled somewhat, but was 

 still soft and yielding and over six feet deep. Tramping wearily 

 on through the chaff-like substance, I slowty worked my way 

 downward, and again threaded the maze of crevasses, now par- 

 tially concealed by the layer of new snow, with which we had 

 struggled several times before. Midway to the next camping 

 place I met my companions coming up to search for me. Instead 

 of meeting three men, as I expected, I saw five tramping along 

 in single file through the deep snow. The sight of human beings 

 in that vast solitude was so strange that I watched them for 

 some time before shouting. Glad as I was to meet my com- 

 panions once more, I could not help noticing their rough and 

 picturesque appearance. Each man wore colored glasses and 

 carried a long alpenstock, and two or three had packs strapped 

 on their backs. Several weeks of hard tramping over moraines 

 and snow-fields had made many rents in their clothes, which 

 had been mended with cloth of any color that chanced to be 

 available. Not a few rags were visible fluttering in the wind. 

 To a stranger they would have appeared like a dangerous band 

 of brigands. 



The reason for the joresence of five men instead of three was 

 this : Lindsley and Stamy, when the}' left us at Rope cliff to 



22— Nat. Geog. Mag., vol. HI, IS'Jl. 



