LEUCO CLIFFS: THE GRAND CIRQUE. THE GRAND MORAINE IN FOREGROUND 



moraine. I don't mind rocks for bedding — am rather fond of them, in fact — but 

 insist upon an approximate degree of horizon tali ty. The bed I constructed there 

 of schistose slabs, levelled and matched to a nicety, amid a chaos of boulders, 

 fills my heart with reminiscent longing at this distant and comfortable moment. 

 To live over again the early triumphs of cave men is one of the sweetest privileges 

 of the Sierras. Thus fortified by the certainty of slumber, I addressed myself 

 for the remaining hours of daylight to the snowfields and the cliffs, and soon 

 had the satisfaction of making a location. This was confirmed by a later, and 

 enduring, visit of the female, at a point midway of the main cliffs, and on a wall 

 about 425 feet high. Forbidding as the prospect appeared, I saw how it might, 

 conceivably, be reached through a succession of wells, or deep fissures, whose 

 lowest ramification extended to a tiny ledge, which seemed to command the very 

 niche on which the Leuco had lost herself. Repairing, accordingly, the next 

 day to the peak (altitude 11,600), with Robert, who had joined me, we con- 

 templated the descent. It was not alluring. It was, in fact, abominably steep, 

 and a good bit further than we had counted on. We stripped to the barest neces- 

 sities, save rope and pikes (both a mistake, as the event proved), and prepared, 

 with some little trepidation, to go down. The passage may be described briefly 

 as a well, a near perpendicular ledge, and a well. The upper well was obstructed 

 in two places by rock masses lodged in its throat. It was easy to pass behind 

 the uppermost of these obstructions, but the other forced us outside. There was 

 nothing here but two blank walls. Bob felt confident, but I was dubious. Final- 

 ly, I let him down with a rope to the first convenient landing, and saw him climb 

 up again, to prove that it could be done. Still a little timorous, I had him let 

 me down, by way of playing safe, till I got the feel of the thing (we had but one 

 rope and had to take that down with us.) The very walls here were treacherous, 

 for their stability had never been tested save by the soft falling snow. Block 

 after block I flung down as we descended, so as to forestall the danger of attack 

 from behind. 



The upper reaches of the second well were occupied by a snowbank and a 

 slithering mass of treacherous accumulation, gravel and wash, all too steep for 



