1894] Geography and Travels. 47 
with packs containing necessaries for the trip and the instruments for 
observing and recording all we were to see.” 
“ When we reached the mountain, with the aid of a glass I was able 
to map out a route to the larger of the craters which would not cross 
any of the great crevasses in the ice slopes. Our ascent began imme- 
diately, and in less than an hour became very steep and in places dan- 
gerous. Our progress was checked by an enormous cañon, several 
hundred feet deep, which appeared a counterpart of the great cañon of 
the Yellowstone. Its formation showed several old lava flows, which, 
being firmer than the cinders and broken rock, in most places overhung 
the walls of the cafion and made descent out of the question. The 
great glacier åt its head was fully 100 feet deep at the foot, and was 
ploughing its way into a huge terminal moraine of small rocks. We 
could plainly hear the rocks grinding together as the great body of ice 
slowly forced them down the cafion. This great glacier headed in the 
ice cap at the summit of the mountain, and, although it looked steep 
and slippery, we decided to try the route. It was then 10 o’clock in 
the morning—a bad time to climb ice slopes aud snow fields—but 
we had been gone from Tacoma nearly a week and had only provis- 
ions for two more days. We had proceeded but a short distance 
cutting steps in the steep ice slope, when a bombardment of rocks 
warned us that our route was to be a dangerous one. The surface of 
the glacier seemed a sheet of ice clear to the summit, and down its 
slippery surface came rocks large and small as fast as the noonday sun 
melted the ice and snow which held them near the top.” 
“Imagine a toboggan slide about three miles long, starting nearly 
10,000 feet above the sea with an initial grade of forty-five degrees. 
The speed of the rocks as they passed us was terrific. They whirled 
at such a rate that they seemed spherical in form, and as they flew 
down the slope seemed only to touch the high places in the slightly 
wavy surface of the glacier, making a metallic sound as they clipped 
the ice into a cloud which trailed them like a comet’s tail. Here and 
there great rocks lay upon the surface of the glacier, probably having 
been held by a fall of new snow, and now and then one of these flying 
rocks would strike those which were held by the ice, and, amid a 
shower of sparks and chips, would bound into the air fifty feet or 
more, still whirling like a buzz saw and giving out a sound which I 
cannot describe. All this would have been very entertaining if so 
many of the flying rocks had not passed near us.” 
“ We were exposed to this danger for over an hour while climbing a 
quarter of a mile, and to say that we were all thoroughly frightened 
