Photograph by R. F. Griggs 

 THE BED OF FICKLE CREEK IN 1916 : IT FIAD SHIFTED A THOUSAND FEET IN THE YEAR 



into which one sinks to his ankles, while 

 new sand continually slides down on to 

 him. 



Often the whole slide above one will 

 begin to move and then he is placed in a 

 tread-mill, where he must keep moving 

 or slide to the bottom (see page 37). 

 Such climbing was of course hard work, 

 and we soon cut up our finger-nails and 

 wore the tips of our fingers down to the 

 quick in the sharp sand by using our 

 hands to help us in climbing. 



FORDING A MILE OF QUICKSAND 



When we descended to the ford we 

 found that the bottom was a continuous 

 quicksand clear across. 



Sometimes the surface would hold like 

 the crust of a snowdrift; but we were in 

 constant fear of going down, for on 

 sounding with our alpenstock we discov- 

 ered that the whole length of the stick 

 went down into the sand anywhere with- 

 out finding bottom. Often our footing 

 gave way and we found ourselves floun- 

 dering up to our middle in quicksand. 



With all our crossings in the two ex- 

 peditions no one ever got in so deep that 

 he could not get out alone. But there 

 was the ever-present knowledge that we 

 never touched the bottom and the fear of 

 what might happen next time. 



Besides this the labor of carrying a 



pack through such mire is so great as to 

 defy description. It must be experienced 

 to be appreciated. Every step takes all 

 one's strength and soon one's weary mus- 

 cles ache from the strain. But once in, 

 there is no chance to rest until one 

 reaches the farther shore, for there is no 

 place to lie down or sit down, and if one 

 even stands still he immediately begins to 

 sink. Even the strongest man is well- 

 nigh exhausted after a mile of such work. 

 The condition of streams choked with 

 ash and pumice is peculiar in the ex- 

 treme. They spread out over their whole 

 floodplain, wandering this w r ay and that 

 through the dead forest in a most fan- 

 tastic way, changing their courses con- 

 tinually, so that the stream is never the 

 same for half an hour at a time. The 

 whole bottom is rapidly traveling down- 

 stream, its continuous, steady motion re- 

 sembling one of the moving platforms 

 which are sometimes used to transport 

 passengers. 



One stream near our camp had cut 

 clear through the accumulated mass of 

 ash just below a fall, forming a bluff 

 some 70 feet high. A hundred yards 

 downstream, however, the slope, though 

 still very steep, was less, and the stream 

 had been completely overcome by the 

 enormous quantity of pumice in its way- 

 It was ludicrous to watch the struggles 



35 



