ASCENT OF HAKNEY PEAK. 67 



granite. Beyond us, in a succession of peaks and ridges, or shooting up 

 vertically in slim pinnacles and points, rounded, grooved, and scarred by 

 the action of the weather, the summits of the granite masses tower in an 

 almost endless repetition. Many little drainage valleys, with sides and 

 bottoms thickly tangled with aspen and pine, wander through the maze of 

 peaks. 



The sides of the peaks are generally covered by a dense growth of 

 small pine trees, and this extends up to the vertical cliffs. In many places, 

 however, large areas of the mountain flanks have been burned off, leaving 

 the blackened trunks ; and in others a tornado has covered the slopes with 

 fallen timber. 



Starting from French Creek near the stockade, winding among the 

 granite ridges, which here run east and west, and going northward through 

 a series of grassy valleys which follow the outcrops of the schists and head 

 toward the high peaks of the Harney range, the headwaters of Battle 

 Creek are soon reached. Dammed by the beaver, the creek is spread 

 out in swampy valleys overgrown with a dense brake of aspen and 

 willow. Breaking through this undergrowth one is soon compelled to dis- 

 mount and arduously force his way along, leading his horse as best he 

 may, while the presence of his comrades is only known by the plunging 

 and crashing they make in their slow progress. With rugged granite 

 heights before and on both sides, singling out a prominent peak that 

 promises most to be Harney, we thither direct our course, and soon find 

 the tangled valley narrowing, while before us rises the face of a granite 

 ridge. Mounting its side, rough with broken fragments of rock and per- 

 haps still further encumbered with a growth of small pines or with fallen 

 timber, we reach the summit, and exhausted with the exertion of climbing 

 and pulling up the horses we look eagerly around over the waste of granite, 

 piled in endless confusion, weathered in fantastic shapes, and cleft with 

 deep and narrow valleys, to see if Harney is recognizable. Across a 

 steep-sided valley we think we see it raising its summit in the distance, and 

 descending several hundred feet over the broken mountain slope, and 

 crossing the narrow valley, thickly grown with trees and piled with 

 bowlders, we painfully ascend its farther side, which to our discourage- 



