First Ascent: Mt. Humphreys. 157 



the jacks for three or four days, and a short distance off 

 were a few straggHng, storm-beaten, dwarf pines, which 

 would serve as firewood. The margin of the lake was 

 fringed with the exquisite alpine heather. Here we finally 

 made our camp, at an elevation of about 11,100 feet. 

 The region was destitute of all vegetation excepting 

 the few trees, the grass, and the flowers. The water 

 of the lake was as clear as crystal and of a deep 

 bluish green color. The shore-line was a rocky wall, 

 composed of large boulders. This is a feature character- 

 istic of nearly all high mountain lakes which freeze soHd 

 in winter. When a lake of this sort freezes solid, the 

 ice grasps firmly the boulders in the bottom ; a thaw then 

 comes, and the ice cracks. Later the cracks fill with 

 water, and, in turn, this water freezes again. The expan- 

 sion caused by the freezing of the water in the cracks 

 causes the blocks of ice carrying the boulders to be 

 pushed toward the shore, and in the course of many years 

 all the boulders in the lake are deposited around its 

 margin and built up into a kind of wall, projecting 

 considerably above the surface of the water. 



No sooner had we arrived at our camping-place than 

 we were visited by numerous little birds of very beautiful 

 plumage. They were about the size of an ordinary Eng- 

 lish sparrow. The head was of a light ashy color, the 

 back a sooty black, the body a most beautiful cinnamon- 

 brown, while the wings and tail feathers were blackish. 

 A few of the feathers were slightly tipped with white 

 These birds were the gray-crowned finch, or leucosticte. 

 They were very tame and inquisitive, and flitted from rock 

 to rock near by and watched all our camping operations. 



The view across the lake, and still farther across 



