V 
near the top. The vertical portion is over 
600 feet in height. The snow and ice remain 
in these crevices thruout the summer, be- 
coming a little discolored, and therefore not 
so plainly visible in autumn, but brighten- 
ing up again when snow falls, which is eveiy 
month of the year. We saw the cross first 
from a range far away to the east. It was 
distinctly seen against the dark granite face 
of the mountain, which loomed up in the 
mirage effect to a marvelous height. 
Later we found a creek which we knew 
must come down from the face of the peak, 
if not from the very foot of the cross. 
Climbing was very difficult ; a thick virgin 
forest extending in a belt several miles wide 
across the base had to 
be traversed before 
we reached the final 
ascent. There we 
had to stop our ani- 
mals and proceed on 
foot. Dr. Hayden, 
who was always a 
reckless climber, had 
the misfortune to fall 
into one of the moun- 
tain torrents crossed 
during the ascent, 
but was rescued with- 
out much difficulty, 
and pushed forward 
with the rest. 
Then it began to 
rain, so that we could 
see nothing, and we 
resolved to camp 
over night, tho we had 
started out with no provisions but a small 
lunch. We made our fires at the timber- 
line, 2,000 feet below the summit, and 
whiled away the weary hours telling stories 
and watching the bright speck of light made 
by the camp-fire of our photographer, W. 
H. Jackson, who was storm-bound on the 
ridge to the east. 
In the morning, breakfastless and weak, 
we reascended the mountain. By this time 
the clouds had parted so that many summits 
were in sight. As we stood on the narrow 
rocky summit we sought the upper end of 
the stem of the cross, and found that it oc- 
cupied a long straight gulley, and consisted 
in the main of whitish glistening ice. Our 
photographer, from the opposite ridge, got 
some excellent views of the cross, and these 
have been the basis for almost all the illus- 
trations of the mountain and cross which 
have since appeared. Some time afterward 
the artist Thomas Moran went out and 
painted the mountain, the cross, and the 
roaring torrents with wonderful truthfulness 
and skill. 
A notable episode of the descent of this 
peak was the wonderful storm effects. The 
sun at our backs broke thru the clouds, and 
there was immediately projected on the 
mists that filled the dark gulf to the east a 
brilliant rainbow — not the arch as usually 
seen, but the entire circle — a spectral ring, 
with our shadows thrown across the lower 
half, our heads appearing in the center. 
This mountain is ’ 
in Central north- 
ern Colorado, some 
20 or 80 miles from 
Leadville, the site 
of this mining 
town being then a 
dense forest. This 
was in 1874, and in / 
passing I tapped with my geological hammer 
on some of the ledges of rusty ore about 
which a few years later more than 10,000 
people had assembled. 
I have had some unpleasant experiences 
with Indians. I remember one especially 
in connection with a pretty tough lot of 
savages then infesting the cliff-house region. 
One night our party of six encamped on the 
river-bottom far down in Utah. For some 
reason we did not set a guard, but “ hobbled ” 
our mules, and turned them out to graze 
with the bell-horse as leader. This leader- 
ship of the bell-horse is a strange thing. 
Explorers and travelers know well that if a 
bell is put on a horse in a herd, the rest of 
the animals, particularly if they are* mules, 
will take a strong fancy for him, and follow-' 
