344 THE BED MOUNTAIN OF ALASKA. 
dulging in his merriment, " and placed it beside father's 
little map of Alaska. ' There,' said he, ' now allow two 
points variation of the compass back there by the lake- 
with-the-tall-trees, swerving more and more as we worked 
our way over the last two hundred miles of the trip, till 
the needle is nearly at right angles with its true course ; 
where would we be on the map of Alaska ? ' 
" ' Somewhere about this point,' says father, putting 
his finger down on the map. 
" ' Exactly so. Now oblige me, John, by looking under 
your finger.' 
" ' Mt. Wrangel ! ' 
" ^ And no other ! ' says Uncle Dick, getting rather 
excited as he comes out with his discovery. ' Your Red 
Mountain, Peeschee, is nothing more nor less than a spur 
of Mt. Wrangel, twenty thousand feet high, the loftiest 
mountain in America ! ' 
" ' But how about the variation of the compass ? ' 
" ' Look ! ' says uncle, pointing up at the jagged rocks 
above us. ' Red Mountain, eh, John ? This peak is not 
composed of solid cinnabar, to be sure, but it is a tolerably 
perfect specimen of a mountain of iron ! ' " 
"There, mother, there!" cried Hugh, "the secret's 
out ! " 
" But how can the iron help us, John ?" 
" Because, in the first place, that ore, in such rich pro- 
portions of the true metal, is extremely valuable. Sec- 
ondly, it is almost invariably accompanied by the presence 
