The Thumb 



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chute, but at the critical moment gained my footing on a very rocky 

 moraine. Whether this place is free from snow at a more favorable 

 season is hard to say. Probably yes, and, if so, there should be no 

 difficulty in surmounting it. From there it is plain sailing to the 

 top. 



I must digress here to express an opinion rather damaging to the 

 prestige of the Thumb. While I had no apparatus with which to 

 make an accurate test, yet, from simple observation, I believe that it 

 has not the relative elevation designated on the map. Birch Moun- 

 tain and the unnamed peak cut the sky at points far too high for 

 this. Very roughly, I should put the former at 13,800, the latter at 

 13,750 instead of 13,472, and the Thumb as low as 13,650 feet. 



It might be imagined from this that the panorama is considerably 

 obscured. So it is. As compensation, however, one gets that which is 

 worth far more. One gets an intimate contact with a country unsur- 

 passed in its majesty and savage ruggedness. What the North Pali- 

 sade is to the view from Mount Sill, the Middle is to the view from 

 the Thumb. One gazes on it with less of the awe and terror inspired 

 by the former. One can comprehend more of the beauty of its sculp- 

 ture. One can marvel at the symmetrical fluting of the southern part ; 

 one can contemplate the black sheerness of the more distant northern 

 one; the whole set off in dark contrast by the glistening glaciers at 

 the foot. It is this Middle Palisade which so gloriously obscures the 

 view! Those which to the south do likewise have not its splendor. 

 Birch and Split mountains are bulky and ponderous by comparison. 

 So this is perhaps the least interesting view. Golden cliffs light the 

 western prospect, while Mount Sill, sharper than from elsewhere, 

 lends its individuality at the north. Thence, passing east by the tips 

 of Mount Humphreys and Mount Tom, across Owens Valley one 

 views the Whites and the Inyos, and beyond them range beyond 

 range of the desert mountains. 



I found no trace of man on the summit and left little or none my- 

 self. Being too fatigued to erect a monument from the heavy granite 

 there, I built only a little cairn. Within I deposited a memorandum 

 of the expedition inside the most water-tight container that I had — 

 a court-plaster can. There was little time for exploration, unfortu- 

 nately, as I desired before sunset to climb the shoulder of the moun- 

 tain to the northeast, where I might obtain a close view of the famil- 

 iar profile of the Thumb. Ascent from the north would be impossible 



