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Sierra Club Bulletin, 



accomplished doubtless by many previous climbers; Le 

 Conte has told me that he stood erect on its peak for a 

 photograph, which took good nerve. 



On the summit we had found an abandoned staff of Cot- 

 tonwood left by some previous climber. This rendered 

 good service when the descent of the snow-banks began. 

 We divided it with as near mathematical precision as 

 might be into equal sections, and it afforded each of 

 us a brake to aid in that somewhat ticklish operation. 

 The upper reaches of the snow were far too steep to 

 permit of coasting; to have attempted it would have 

 borne greater resemblance to falling off from the moun- 

 tain-side than to sliding down-hill. The temptation to 

 begin at the earliest possible moment was, however, 

 strong; the process of laboriously picking one's way 

 over the broken rocks in descent being excessively 

 tedious ; so just as soon as we dared, we turned ourselves 

 loose on the snow-bank, digging in our heels to prevent 

 too rapid progress, and retaining the proper position by 

 the drag of the extemporized brake. The result was that 

 we fairly flew over the not altogether even surface. The 

 snow was somewhat melted, and hence yielding, but was 

 full of good, honest ice crystals which cut through the 

 strong cloth which served as our only toboggan like 

 coarse sand-paper. For the second time this season I 

 sacrificed a pair of trousers, or a useful portion of them, 

 to this exhilarating sport; on Goat Mountain in the first 

 place, and again here. The process of attrition and of 

 transformation of that which was thick into that which 

 was excessively thin or non-existent was in both instances 

 brief. A stretch of the mountain which it had taken us 

 a tedious half-hour to ascend was accomplished in half a 

 minute, or it may be in less time. As I progressed in my 

 rapid flight, like Donati's comet, with a tail of loose snow 

 streaming after, I had noticed in glancing ahead that 

 something had dropped from my companion's pocket and 

 had bumped after him, as if in the endeavor to catch up. 

 Flying over the snow-bank, I made a grab at the article. 



