, 4 >‘ 
that has led him on through all these weary days, only to deceive 
him? . 
He sits down among the rocks to rest and ponder* Meantime the 
winds rise and the dull mists are driven along the cliffs and torn 
to tatters on the sharp projections. To the west great billowy 
passage-ways are opened, and glimpses of the lofty mountains can be 
had, looking like ghosts through the thin mists. Suddenly the artist 
glances upward, and beholds a vision exceeding dramatic and beautiful. 
He is amazed, he is transfixed. There, set in the dark rock, held high 
among the floating clouds, he beholds the long-sought cross, perfect, 
spotless white, grand in dimensions, at once the sublimest thing In 
nature and the emblem of heaven. 
He recalls himself, and remembers his ambition, his duty, to 
transfix, by his art, an image of this vision,, that can be carried 
back to the world. He sets his camera in haste, and invokes the aid 
of the floating sunlight. He turns for his chemicals, but they are 
not there. They are far down the mountain on the backs of weary men. 
In despair he sees the clouds gather and settle down for the night. 
At nearly the same hour our party stood on the summit of the 
mountain itself and gathered snow from the very top of the holy cross. 
We, too, saw the clouds break and scatter, and gazed with wonder upon 
the rolling sea, with its dark mountain islands, and crouched behind 
the great rocks to avoid the cold winds that battle so incessantly 
about those high summits. 
The utter solitude and desolation of these summit regions are 
never so deeply impressed upon one as when the rest of the world is 
shut out thus by clouds, and nothing greets the eye but dull granites 
and frozen snows. 
And, now, since no observations could be made, we decided to 
descend to timber line, and spend the night. 
In passing down the crest of the northern spur w© stopped near 
the edge of a great precipice to watch the play of the storm-clouds 
below, and to pitch great rocks into the abyss. While here we were 
favored by a most unusual phenomenal display. The sun at our backs 
broke through the clouds, and there was immediately projected on 
the mists that filled the dark gulf a brilliant rainbow; not the arch, 
as usually seen, but an entire circle, a spectral ring, which, as we 
still gazed, faded away, and in a minute was gone. Far beyond, on 
the opposite side of this deep valley, we could see the ridge occupied 
