The Sky-Line of the Tatoosh Range. 21 



occurrence to find tufts of their soft, pale buff -colored 

 wool clinging to the lower branches of trees on some 

 rocky headland. 



The panorama from Unicorn, in altitude an insig- 

 nificant peak, excels that from Rainier, as there the 

 mountain itself is so stupendously big and impressive 

 that it flattens all its surroundings into insignificance. But 

 on Unicorn one is set in the midst of a wilderness of 

 craggy peaks and snowy ridges; the great cones of 

 Adams, St. Helens, and Hood, and the almost invisible 

 form of Jefferson bound the horizon on the south, while 

 northward Rainier closes in your view, the whole bulk of 

 it from the wooded meadows that stretch down to the 

 Paradise River up to the icy crown of Columbia Crest, 

 14,528 feet above the sea. 



Our descent was uneventful, but wonderfully beauti- 

 ful in the soft coloring of the late afternoon. A few 

 timid attempts at snow-sliding on the part of the inex- 

 perienced Californians furnished some amusement to 

 those better trained in the art, and proved a welcome, if 

 somewhat chilling, rest from the rapid downhill walking 

 of which most of our homeward trip consisted. 



A " Sky-Line Trail " is a happy one to follow. There 

 are none of the heart-breaking descents of wearily climbed 

 ridges, none of the restless fevers of curiosity to know 

 what lies over the next hill that beset a cross-country 

 walk. The country lies widespread before you on either 

 hand, and you have the comfortable assurance right be- 

 fore your eyes that in a day's journey there is no more 

 desirable crest to be found than the one on which you are 

 standing. And when at the end of a ridge walk you find 

 a peak difficult enough to give the whole trip the spice 

 of adventure, an unexplored peak to give you the joy 

 of the pioneer as well, you feel that your day on the 

 sky-line is perhaps longest to be remembered among ail 

 the days of the summer. 



