i8 



Sierra Club Bulletin. 



our crossing. They were not destined to escape our 

 acquaintance so easily, however. Evidently they were not 

 used to Sierra Club ways, and, having put a mountain 

 between us, deemed themselves safe from further disturb- 

 ance. So one of them was composedly finishing his noon- 

 day meal just over the brow of the divide; and we, 

 chancing, for a wonder, to be moving rather silently, 

 came within twenty feet of him before he realized our 

 presence. Our surprise, though hardly less than his own, 

 did not take so spasmodic a form. The five or six stifif- 

 legged leaps that took him across the snow into the cover 

 of the dwarf firs could not have been excelled by any 

 jumping- jack in the land. After hearing all one's life 

 such expressions as " graceful as a deer," and " she 

 ran hke a young deer," it is both disappointing and dis- 

 illusioning to have one's first specimen of a real live 

 wild deer go off in a series of rapid-fire hops like that; 

 it destroys one's faith in the poets. 



Not very long after this we stopped for lunch, which 

 we finished with business-like rapidity, realizing that the 

 afternoon was upon us, and that, pleasant though the 

 loitering on the sky-line might be, it behooved us to 

 hasten if we meant to conquer our peak. It was past i 

 o'clock before we reached the base of the saddle between 

 Unicorn Peak and the high shoulder to the west. Here 

 we held a short council of war.- The snow-field was ex- 

 ceedingly steep — so steep that it was evident much time 

 would have to be consumed in the cutting of steps. On 

 the other hand, if we took the alternative offered, and, 

 circling the snow-field, made the approach by way of 

 the shoulder, we ran the risk of encountering precipitous 

 cliffs that might effectually bar our progress and compel 

 us to retrace our way. We finally decided to try the 

 snow-field. 



For some little distance it was easy enough, but ail 

 at once the slope tilted itself up so that it was no longer 

 safe to trust to the footing afforded by the ice-calks in 

 our shoes or to the balancing power given by our alpen- 



