220 GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TERRITOEIES. 



right, we found ourselves on tlie divide between the head of the Great 

 Caiion and that of a smaller one, which opened directly out toward Jack- 

 son's Hole. In the head of this latter, perhaps 200 feet below us, lay 

 a small ice-covered lake, with no surface-outflow, but probably draining 

 through the slopes of debris which hemmed it in on either side. The 

 accompanying outline-sketch of our route beyond this point has been 

 made up by Mr. Holmes from Mr. Jackson's photographs, which were 

 taken from the top of the western wall of the Great Canon. (Fig. 47.) 



In the broad head of the Great Caiion, which we now crossed, there 

 are three or four small and apparently shallow ponds, partly covered 

 with ice, though partly clear. The outflow of one, buried in rubbish for 

 some distance, finally appears on the edge of a cliff and makes a pretty 

 little fall, iierhaps 30 feet high, at the head of which, with a favorable 

 wind, one can easily get a spray-bath at short notice. At the head of 

 this pond, a slight depresion of the crest of the spur indicates probably 

 the best point for crossing, though the slopes areof fine sliding rubbish, 

 which -makes climbing tedious. Those who preferred climbing over 

 solid rock crossed a little farther out on the spur. Another short half- 

 mile of snow brought us at length to the foot of the central peak. In 

 neither of these two snow-basins was there any apparent consolidation 

 of the snow into glacier-like bodies of ice, though small icy patches 

 were seen, and the compacted snow was occasionally cracked as if by in- 

 cipient crevasses. Apparently, the melting of the snow is very nearly 

 complete every season, so that no glacier-like masses can be formed. 

 We afterward saw abundant evidence that this valley, like others in the 

 range, was once the scene of intense glacial action. 



It is possible to climb directly up the steep slope of bare rock in 

 front of the lowest part of the saddle south of the main xDcak. Those 

 who prefer gentler slopes of debris and snow should pass about two 

 hundred yards farther north, where such a slope reaches to a higher 

 point of the saddle. 



Several of the party had already turned back, and Mr. Bechler'iS 

 injury, previously mentioned, made it imprudent for him to attempt 

 these steeper slopes. Accordingly, he turned off and examined the 

 caiion for a mile or so lower down. Five of us reached the saddle — 

 Messrs. Stevenson, Langford, Hamin and Spencer, and myself. Here I 

 stopped, at 12 o'clock, at the elevation of about 11,400 feet, to wait for 

 a mercurial barometer, which Mr. West had undertaken to deliver to me 

 at that point, so that I might take it to the summit. I afterward 

 learned that he had already turned back from the high spur, without 

 really attempting either to reach the saddle himself or to send forward 

 the barometer by any other person. Meanwhile, I examined the rocks 

 upon and east of the saddle. Climbing is here much hindered by steep 

 slopes of snow, some of which consist wholly of hail-stones from a third 

 to a half inch in diameter. A fierce west wind, blowing forty to fifty 

 miles per hour, was sweeping across the saddle with such force that the 

 loudest shouts were inaudible fifty yards to windward. I experienced 

 no inconvenience from the rarity of the air at this elevation. My high- 

 est point was about 12,000 feet, about a half mile east of the main sad- 

 dle, from which point I had a limited view out to the basin of Jackson's 

 Hole. The mountain descended in bare rock-slopes over 4,000 feet, 

 until, with gentler slopes, there appeared a belt of pines and spruces. In 

 the upper edge of this belt, a small- lake, partly iced over, occupied a 

 notch in the base of the mountain immediately beneath me. The timber 

 stretched in a heavy body down along a small stream flowing past the 

 base of the mountain out to its junction with Snake River. In i)laiii 



