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Sierra Club Bulletin. 



was fine for these creatures, insects being long preserved 

 there in cold storage. Once, many years ago, I had 

 taken advantage of a similar situation, when myriads 

 of migratory grasshoppers, crossing the Rockies, had 

 rested on the snow-fields of Ethel Peak and become con- 

 gealed. In a week's time I was so fortunate as to kill 

 three grizzlies who had come there to eat them, and I 

 missed the opportunity of a lifetime in not staying with 

 that snow-bank until I had killed all the bears in that 

 part of Colorado. 



A hummingbird darted overhead, the whir of his wings 

 having a peculiarly exotic sound up here among the ice 

 at the top of the world. It was like a glancing beam of 

 the tropics at the north pole. The real climb began at 

 11,200 feet, a tableland, not above vegetation but ahead 

 of it, winter still reigning except in very warm nooks ; 

 we found dandelion-like representatives of the Com- 

 positcE in flower, some of them scarcely a half-inch high. 

 Soon we began to get a more extensive view to the north- 

 east, through Glenn Pass into the basin of Wood's Creek, 

 with Mt. Pinchot in the distance and Mt. King and Mt. 

 Gardiner nearer at hand. Here grew a little yellow flower 

 with yarrow-like foliage, two inches high, not met before, 

 a potentilla, and another of the Composites, this one like 

 a yellow daisy, the size of a dollar. It was just past noon 

 when we had reached the cave. After a brief rest there 

 we pushed on above the saddle, and were now opposite 

 the summit of Cross Mountain, 12,140 feet, which nearly 

 terminates the spur of the Great Western Divide, over- 

 looking Bubb's Creek. Now we were greeted by hail, and 

 later by rain and hail. Fortunately, this began to let up 

 as we started to ascend the steep snow and rocks. If any 

 part of the ascent were not perfectly agreeable, perhaps 

 it might have been while ascending this steep snow-bank 

 and the snow beyond, where a misstep would have meant 

 trouble. In the Canadian Rockies or in Switzerland all 

 work of this sort would be achieved by climbers attached 

 to one another by ropes, not less than three people 



