Mt. Shasta, from Lake Elaine 



Leaving our machine at Sisson, after an exceptionally muddy trip, we outfitted for 

 timberline, and arrived at noon, July 7th, after seeing one of our helpers, a young man 

 of seventeen, nearly killed by a vicious horse. The animal threw his rider, dragged 

 him a few rods by a clinging stirrup, then, finding himself free, proceeded to jump up 

 and down stiff-legged, not less than four or five times, over the lad's prostrate form. 

 Yet the young fellow escaped with only an ugly flesh wound on his arm! Half an hour 

 later a pack-horse, tired of its job, proceeded to divest itself of the grub kits, and suc- 

 ceeded in planting a hoof accurately in each of four biscuit tins. The result was highly 

 diverting, and we could enjoy it; for it might so easily have been the cameras instead. 



Arrived at timberline, or at the upper edge of the somber belt of Shasta firs which 

 girds the noble mountain in a belt some fifty miles in circumference, we found very little 

 doing in the bird line. Careful investigation during succeeding days discovered only 

 three species of birds breeding near the 8,000-foot level, which in the Sierras would 

 have been teeming with life at this season. We settled down, therefore, to a close study 

 of these three forms, and especially of the Townsend Solitaire, who was the genius 

 loci. Of the Solitaire we found and took six nests with eggs, all literally among the 

 snow-banks. Of the Wright Flycatcher we found two nests with eggs, one of which 

 had been overwhelmed by the storm of the first instant. The other nest was placed in 

 a tiny fir tree whose roots were covered by snow. The Western (?) Ruby-crowned 

 Ringlet, which was the third member of the trio, kept to the treetops, where search was 

 all but useless. 



On the 18th of July we began the ascent of the mountain, which has a reputed alti- 

 tude of 14,380 feet. At the 13,000-foot level Bert felt obliged to quit, and left me to 

 finish alone, which I did in fine condition, by the help of the tea canteen and a three- 

 ounce ration of rock candy. 



The peak cluster proper, a serrated rock mass rising sharply above a blinding level 

 of snow, presented on this occasion a curious, and possibly unique, spectacle. We had 

 had a heavy rain at the lower levels two days before. At the level of the summit the 

 cold breath of an east wind, contending steadily against the moisture-laden atmosphere 

 from the Pacific, had caused its moisture to congeal successively in great horizontal 

 icicles, or ice crystals, until the rocks were covered with a panoply of ice three or four 

 feet in thickness and of diverse as well as striking beauty. Although limpid or glister- 

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