418 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 
waters were rushing from beneath the glaciers, which at their upper ex- 
tremity were rent and broken into fissures and caverns of unknown 
depths. 
The present summit of the mountain is evidently what was long since 
the northern rim of an immense crater, which could not have been less 
than three miles in diameter. The southern wall of the crater has fallen 
completely away, and the crater itself become filled with rock and ashes 
overlaid with the accumulated snows of ages, through the rents and 
chasms of which now escape smoke, steam and gases from the pent-up fires 
below. The fires are yet so near that many of the rocks which project 
upward are so hot that the naked hand cannot be held upon them. Just 
at the southwest foot of the circular wall, now constituting the summit, and 
at a distance of near 2000 feet from its extreme height, is now the 
main opening of the crater. From this a column of steam and smoke 
across the glacier from wall to wall. There is no evading it. The sum- 
mit cannot be reached without crossing it. Steadily and deliberately 
poising myself on my staff, 1 sprang over the chasm at the most favora- 
ble place I could select, landing safely on the declivity 2 or -3 feet above 
it, and then with the staff assisted the others to cross. The last move- 
ment of 15 feet had considerably changed the prospect of the ascent. 
rue, the crevasse was d, but we were thrown directly below a wal 
of ice and rocks 500 feet high, down which masses, detached by the heat ; 
of the sun, were plunging with fearful velocity. To avoid them it was é 
the crevasse on th per side for a distance, and the 
from our brows, but on nearing the summit the weariness seemed to van- 
ish, and with a feeling of triumph we bounded upon the pinnacle gf the 
highest mountain in North America. 
‘he summit was reached at about the center of the circular wall which 
constitutes the extreme altitude, and it was so sharp that it was impossi- 
ble to stand erect upon it. Its northern face is an escarpment several 
thousand feet high. I could only lie down on the southern slope, and, 
holding firmly to the rocks, look down the awful depth. A few r 
2 west was a point 40 or 50 feet higher, to the summit of which we 
crawled, and then discovered that 40 or 50 rods to the east wasa point 
