456 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TEERITOEIES. 



nearly a thousaud feet vertical. Before reaching the summit of the first 

 high point on the ridge, we noticed stray clouds wandering up and down 

 the neighboring caiions, as if only waiting for us to reach the top-before 

 commencing the attack. 



Seeing that it would be impossible to reach the main peak before the 

 storm would burst upon us, we made our station on the lirst point. The 

 main peak is 41 feet higher and a mile and a half distant, being connected 

 wiih it by along unbroken ridge. Had time permitted, we should prob- 

 ably have occupied both points as stations, but we were unfortunately 

 prevented from doing this by the peculiar circumstances to be described. 

 Station 12, the southern and lower of these two points, is situated in the 

 upper bend of Lake Fork, where, from flowing in a southeasterly direc- 

 tion, it swings around to the east. Near the base of the peak Lake Fork 

 receives its principal tributary from the south side, which on Mr. Prout's 

 map bears the naine of Snare Creek. This peak is the most southerly 

 of the red group included between Godwin Creek and Lake Fork. Its 

 height is 13,907 feet above the sea. On the north and east sides the 

 slopes are quite steep but regular, while on the south and west the sides 

 are very precipitous, with a fall from the summit to the valley below of 

 4,400 feet in a horizontal distance of one mile. 



On arriving at the summit, Mr. Wilson hastily made a rough sketch 

 of the surrounding drainage, and then set up the instrument, while I 

 proceeded to make a profile sketch of the mountains south and west of 

 us. We had scarcely got started to work when we both began to feel a 

 peculiar tickling sensation along the roots of our hair, just at the edge 

 of our hats, caused by the electricity in the air. At first this sensation 

 was only perceptible and not at all troublesome ; still its strength sur- 

 prised us, since the cloud causing it was yet several miles distant to the 

 southwest of us. In the early part of the storm the tension of the 

 electricity increased quite slowly, as indicated by the eifect on our 

 hair. By holding up our hands above our heads a tickling sound 

 was produced, which was still louder if we hekl a hammer or other 

 instroment in our hand. The tickling sensation above mentioned in- 

 creased quite regularly at first, and presently was accompanie ! by a 

 X)eculiar sound almost exactly like that produced by the frying of bacon. 

 This latter phenomenon, when continued for any length of time, becomes 

 highly monotonous and disagreeable. Although the clouds were yet 

 distant, we saw that they were fast spreading and already veiled many 

 degrees of the horizon. As they approached nearer, the tension of the 

 electricity increased more rapidly, and the extent of our horizon obscured 

 by them increased in nearly the same ratio ; so that the rapid increase 

 in the electric tension marked also an increased velocity in recording 

 angles and making sketches. We felt that we could not stop, though 

 the frying of our hair became louder and more disagreeable, for certain 

 parts of the drainage of this region could not be seen from any other 

 13eak, and we did not want to ascend this one a second time. 



As the force of the electricity increased, and the rate of increase 

 became greater and greater, the instrument on the tripod began to 

 click like a telegraph-machine when it is made to work rapidly ; at 

 the same time we noticed that the pencils in our fingers made a simi- 

 lar but finer sound whenever we let them lie back so as to touch the 

 flesh of the hand between the thumb and forefingei". This sound is at 

 first nothing but a continuous series of clicks, distinctly separable 

 one from the other, but the intervals becoming less and less, till finally 

 a musical sound results. The effect on our hair became more and 

 more marked, till, ten or fifteen minutes after its first appearance, there 



