H. CH API-NT. / BANCROFT LIBRARY BANCROFT LIBRARY MOUNTAINEERING IN COLORADO. MOUNTAINEERING IN COLORADO Clje |&eafes &bout BY FREDERICK H.^CHAPIN BOSTON APPALACHIAN MOUNTAIN CLUB 1889 F 71'i Copyright, 1889, BY FREDERICK HASTINGS CHAPIN, SCniittrsitg frtss: JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE. SCo tlje OF A. L. S. C. WHO WAS A LOVER OF THE MOUNTAINS AND OF ALL THAT IS BEAUTIFUL AMONG THEM, AND WHOSE COMPANIONSHIP INSPIRED THIS VOLUME. PKEFACE. THE day for making striking discoveries in the Kocky Mountains is past. It is now three centuries and more, since Alvaro Cabeqa de Vaca with three followers traversed the con- tinent from the Gulf of Mexico to the Spanish settlements on the Pacific coast. His wanderings led him through the region now known as New Mexico ; thus he beheld and crossed the southern Rockies. Nearly a hundred and fifty years later, two French explorers, the brothers La Ve'rendrye, crossed the prairies from the great lakes, and, reach- ing a point near the sources of the Yellowstone River, were the first white men to look upon the northern peaks. Since the day of these early adventurers the exploring parties of Lewis and Clark, Pike, Long, and Fremont have opened the way ; and more recently the better equipped ex- peditions of Hayden, Powell, King, and others have explored the sierras and canons, especially those of Colorado. IV PKEFACE. There remain only byways and corners to be more thoroughly searched ; and fortunate will be the adventurer who finds anything of note that has not already been seen and written about by the indefatigable members of survey parties that have preceded him. But in climbing some of the peaks in the au- tumn of 1886 I saw much that was novel, and during succeeding seasons other remarkable sights forced themselves, as it were, right before my camera. Mr. Ferguson, a pioneer of '59, at whose ranch I stayed while in Estes Park, told me, on the day of my leaving, " I reckon no man ever came into this Park before, and saw as much as you have seen." Some of the success which was attained in certain carefully planned expeditions was due to luck ; more must be placed to the credit of the clear skies and continual sunshine of Colorado. Though I have made many ascents in other parts of the Rocky Mountains, the peaks most thoroughly explored are those that surround Estes Park ; for this reason it has been decided to limit the present descriptions to these northern peaks. The earlier ascents have proved very useful, how- ever, in enabling me to identify different points seen in extended mountain views. PREFACE. V It will be noticed that on several occasions we added to the nomenclature of the range ; this, however, was done only in cases where we felt compelled to have a name for mountain or snow- field. Wherever an expedition is recorded as new, the claim is made on the authority of the frontiers- men who have lived longest in the mountains. With the exception of records of second ex- peditions on the same mountain, the narrative follows the order of the dates of the ascents. Upon the illustrations depends much of the in- terest of the book. With but few exceptions they are made directly from negatives taken in my vari- ous expeditions. They cost hard work and great care ; to obtain them our packs were often heavy. The reproductions were made by the Boston Pho- togravure Company. Parts of the chapters on Long's Peak, Mummy Mountain, and Ypsilou Peak were originally printed in " Appalachia," the journal of the Ap- palachian Mountain Club; and certain episodes related in Chapters II. and VII. appeared in "Scribner's Magazine" for February, 1889. I am under great obligations to Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons for their kind permission to print certain pages, and also for the use of their en- graving " Photographing the Big-horn," which VI PREFACE. accompanied the original text. It has been re- duced by a photographic process. It is believed that the catalogue of the flora of Estes Park, printed as an appendix, will be of in- terest to many who visit the Eockies. The speci- mens named were for the most part collected by my wife during her two summers' residence in the Park. Coulter's "Manual of the Botany of the Eocky Mountain Region " is the authority fol- lowed. The list has been revised and extended by Mrs. George W. Thacher, an indefatigable botanist and an ardent lover of Colorado's mountains. It is very flattering to me that the Appalachian Mountain Club, for whose members many of the articles forming this volume were primarily written, should have deemed them worthy of publication under its auspices. Lest the general reader should be disturbed by the personalities of the narrative, the author would remind him that the style is one customary in the large and increasing literature of mountaineering. CONTENTS. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ix CHAPTER PAGE I. ESTES PARK 13 II. LONG'S PEAK 24 III. MOUNT HALLETT 69 IV. TABLE MOUNTAIN . , 87 V. MUMMY MOUNTAIN 97 VI. YPSILON PEAK 119 VII. HAGUE'S PEAK 136 VIII. STONE'S PEAK . 147 APPENDIX. A PARTIAL LIST OF PLANTS GROWING IN ESTES PARK, COLORADO . 163 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Plates. I. Long's Peak from Table Mountain . . Frontispiece Facing page II. Deer Mountain from Ferguson's Ranch ... 13 III. Summit of Long's Peak over Crags of Mount Hallett 23 IV. Precipice on Mount Hallett 68 V. View down Gorge between Table and Hallett Mountains 87 VI. Hallett Glacier 97 VII. Crevasse on Hallett Glacier 109 VIII. Ypsilou Peak from Deer Mountain .... 119 IX. Unnamed Mountain west of Ypsilon Peak . . 132 X. Mount Fairchild and Hague's Peak over Mary's Lake 136 XI. Mount Hallett to Stone's Peak, from Deer Mountain . . 147 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. foitfj tjje PAGE Ferguson's Ranch 17 Head of Big-horn 20 Near Timber-line on Sprague's Trail 22 Front- Range from Sheep Mountain 23 Long's Peak from Lamb's Ranch 29 Cliffs on Long's Peak 34 View from the " Trough," Long's Peak 37 View from Summit of Long's Peak, westward ... 39 The Cliffs of Long from the East Side 45 Lake on Long's Peak, Lily Mountain in the Distance 47 Winding Snow-field on Long's Peak 50 Section of Snow-field on Long's Peak 54 The Great Moraine on Long's Peak 58 Across the Gorge to Escarpment of the East Peak . . 59 Old Beaver Dam, Rock Creek 62 Old Beaver House 63 New Beaver Dam, Wind River 64 Inhabited Beaver House 65 "We Three" 67 Peak of Mount Hallett 71 The Quarry 79 View from Table Mountain, southward 83 On Furlough 94 Ancient Bed of the Hallett Glacier . 102 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. XI PAGE Ledges above the Hallett Glacier 104 " Old Ephraim " 106 Crossing the Hallett Glacier 110 Tower above the Hallett Glacier, with Profile Rock . 115 Indian Wickyup 120 Gazing at Ypsilon from Deer Mountain 122 Near Camp Ypsilon 125 Arete of Ypsilon Peak 133 Bivouacking ten thousand Feet above the Sea . . . 135 Granite Cliffs in Black Canon 137 Camp iu Black Canon 138 Summit of Hague's Peak from Mount Fairchild . . 140 South Centre of the Hallett Glacier 143 Playground of the Big-horn 149 Up the Big Thompson, Long's Peak in the Distance . 160 The Original Ranch-house at Ferguson's 161 A Ptarmigan ; Summer Plumage, under side .... 162 MOUNTAINEERING IN COLORADO- CHAPTER i. ESTES PARK. mighty ranges of the Eockies come JL sweeping down from the north, through Montana and northern Wyoming, as several nearly parallel ranges, occupying a great breadth of country, in some sections as much as four hun- dred miles. South of Fremont's Peak the several ranges give place to a high plateau, over which the Union Pacific Railroad finds a way from Chey- enne westward. From this plateau the mountains rise again to great heights and enter central Colo- rado as two distinct ranges, the Medicine Bow Mountains on the east, and the Park Range far- ther to the west. The Front Range, so called from its geographical position, rises abruptly from the plains in northern Colorado, and is marked by such lofty summits as Hague's Peak (13,832 feet) 14 MOUNTAINEERING IN COLORADO. and Long's Peak (14,271 feet), in the north, and Pike's Peak (14,147 feet), near the end of the range, a hundred miles farther south. Then comes a break in the chain, where the Arkansas Eiver flows through deep canons on its journey to the plains. South of this break the Wet Eiver Mountains and the Sangre de Cristo Eange mark the eastern borders of the Eockies of Colorado. Standing upon some high peak in the centre of the great ranges that front on the plains, one sees, a hundred miles away toward the New Mexico line, that noble peak of the southern Eockies, Sierra Blanca. In the opposite direction, one hundred miles to the north, towers Long's Peak, its mighty mass dwarfing all other mountains near it. To reach Sierra Blanca, the traveller ascends by the famous railway, with its mule-shoe curve, over Veta Pass, through scenery of world-renowned grandeur ; but if he will climb the slopes of Blanca Peak to timber-line, he will behold scenery that will for the moment almost obliterate from his mind the fact that there is such a place as Veta Pass. To reach the vales near Long's Peak, the old stage-coach must serve the tourists' purpose. The narrow-gauge line of the Denver, Utah, and Pacific Eailroad, now a link in the great Burlington sys- ESTES PARK. 15 tern, lands him at Lyons, the last station on the plains, at the base of the range, and a stage- ride of thirty miles brings him to the beautiful valley of Estes Park. Here, too, as in San Luis Park and in the neighborhood of Sierra Blanca, remarkable as are the valleys and foot-hills, there are scenes among the mountain tops which far surpass in beauty and sublimity any of those viewed along the railway or stage lines. To ap- preciate the wonders of the sierras, one must climb among them. Estes Park, in which are many picturesque scenes, is the natural centre for mountaineering in northern Colorado. It is situated near the Wyo- ming line, and about seventy miles northwest of Denver. Its elevation is about seven thousand feet above the sea. There are about ten thousand acres of pasture-land bordering the banks of the Big Thompson Creek and the smaller streams, and these have all been taken up as homestead claims by pioneers. Seven thousand acres have passed into the hands of an English company, which, I was informed, were originally intended for a great game preserve, but the ranch interests are now predominant, and large herds of cattle of graded Hereford breeds roam through the pastures. Be- sides the ranch of the English company, which 16 MOUNTAINEERING IN COLORADO. owns a small hotel here, there are five other ranches in the Park ; and at one of these, Fergu- son's, we made our headquarters for two seasons. The early history of Estes Park has been told ; but the place is so little visited, except by the dwellers on the plains near the foot-hills, that a few words describing its present condition and its settlement may be of interest. The precious metals not being found in this region, no railway winds through the canon of the St. Vrain, nor through the rough Muggin's Gulch. The whistle of the locomotive is never heard in the valley ; and except that, instead of the primitive elk and deer, a few cattle roam through the pastures, and that an occasional wire fence closes the narrow entrance from one valley to another, little is changed from the original aspect of the country. Mr. Lamb, who lives at the immediate base of Long's Peak, settled there in 1876. Mr. Ferguson came into the valley some fourteen years ago. Originally from Missouri, he was a pioneer of '59, crossed the plains with an ox-team, and set- tled in the lowlands of Colorado ; but he was unfortunate in having his crops destroyed by grasshoppers. He came up into the mountains prospecting, and from the Loveland divide had his 18 MOUNTAINEERING IN COLORADO. first look at Estes Park. He quickly made up his mind to settle in it. He still tells, with a glow of enthusiasm, of his first view of the valley. Even after taking up his claim in this out-of-the- way place, he was troubled again by the insect that had caused his first great loss ; but observing the approach of the pest up through the narrow glade that leads from Estes Park to his higher claim, he felled timber, made a barricade, set fire to it, and saved his crops. His ranch is delight- fully situated, and, though a rnile from the river, is supplied with cold clear water from a never- failing spring. From the cabins around Fergu- son's ranch a magnificent view is obtained of the great Mummy Eange ; and the sunset lights on the cliffs of Lily Mountain, to the east, are inde- scribably beautiful. Especially is this true during the waning of the rainy season, if the slight rain- falls of June and July can be so called. The mornings during this season are clear and beauti- ful ; but in the early afternoon the great peak of the Mummy will perhaps throw off its cloud streamer, and in an hour or two thunder will rattle among the crags of Sheep Mountain, and the rain pour down upon the dry pastures. In a few hours the sun almost gains the mastery once more ; and though the pine-belts and valleys may ESTES PARK. 19 be covered with ascending vapors, the peak of Lily will glow with gorgeous hues. It is probably some such spectacle as this that makes one of the early writers about this valley claim for it the finest scenery in the world. This statement is hardly justified, for we cannot apply to the sur- rounding mountains, however beautiful they may be, the words of Hiouen Tsang in describing a Himalayan view : " The top of the mountain rises to the sky." * Yet Long's Peak, with its great altitude, is truly a cloud-piercer. Like Mount Hood, which has probably gone up and down in the scale of estimated heights more than any other mountain in the West, its stated altitude has been subject to marked variation. It was given in 1857 as 15,000 feet, in 1879 as 14,700, while its present accepted elevation is 14,271 feet. Near by Ferguson's is Mary's Lake, a little sheet of alkaline water, Lily Mountain rising on the south, Sheep Mountain on the west, and Pros- pect Mountain on the east. It was formerly a great resort for big-horn, elk, and deer, which came in great numbers to the lake, as they would to a salt-lick; and many have been shot there. Mr. Ferguson told how in those days, when hunted * Quoted by Andrew Wilson, Abode of Snow, p. 274 : Putnam, 1875. 20 MOUNTAINEERING IN COLORADO. near the lake, the big-horn would scramble up the steep isolated ledges which rise out of the open country to a height of one or two hundred feet. They were then easily surrounded, and escape from rifle-armed hunters was impossible. This, however, was in the early days of the country's settlement, and before the big- horn had learned the ways of hunters. This very wild ani- mal is un- doubtedly the rarest and most interest- ing game found in the Kocky Mountains of Wyoming and Colorado.* Hunters and ranchmen assured me that it had entirely * The accompanying illustration of the head of a young ram is made from an animal which Mr. Ferguson shot on the banks of Mary's lake. The circumference of the horns in the illustra- tion, at the base next the head, is thirteen and three-fourths inches ; length of horn, nineteen and a half inches. ESTES PARK. 21 forsaken the Front Eange, and was to be found only in the mountains beyond North Park, or in Wyoming; but I was able to prove it otherwise. The higher sierras retain all their primeval wild- ness. Many of the peaks in the Front and Rab- bit Ear Ranges remain unsealed, canons among them are still unexplored, and dark forests which fill the upper valleys have never known the foot of man; so that the chance which the explorer runs of meeting with rare wild animals, some- times of a ferocious type, makes mountaineering in the Rockies more exciting than in the older countries. Aside from the deer, which are numerous, the most common large animal in Estes Park is prob- ably the bear. The brown and cinnamon bear are the species generally met with. I am informed that there is perhaps no real difference between the two, for when a litter of cubs is found, some of the young ones are black and some are brown. Grizzlies are rarely seen; but it is related by ranchmen in Estes Park that during the summer of 1886 one made himself quite at home in the val- ley, and one night while wandering around killed several full-grown steers. Lamb, the guide to Long's Peak, says that he saw his tracks many times. A mountain lion was seen at Sprague's 22 MOUNTAINEERING IN COLORADO. ranch during the early winter of the same year, coolly prowling around and among the log- cabins. As before stated, the principal vis- itors in this upland valley are from the low regions of Larimer Coun- ty. Many of them bring tents and cooking uten- sils, and camp by the Big Thompson or the St. Vrain Eivers. The visitors at the ranches are from Denver Near Timber-line on Sprague's Trail. and far east- ern towns. Trout-fishing is the principal sport. Hunters are more attracted to the North Park, which one ESTES PARK. 23 may reach by Cameron's Pass. The lover of high mountain ascents finds a good field for novel expeditions throughout the range; for, with the exception of Long's Peak, the high elevations are rarely visited. Some of these objective points are visible from Ferguson's Eanch; one has but to take a half- hour's stroll on Sheep Mountain near at hand, to behold a long line of noble peaks from a point where Albert Bierstadt made many studies for one of his great pictures. CHAPTEK II. LONG'S PEAK. LONG'S PEAK is of great interest to the mountaineer. It is the highest point in northern Colorado, and its ascent is more difficult than that of any other peak in the range. It has been rather fancifully named the " American Mat- terhorn ; " but when we consider that one side is actually inaccessible, perhaps it is worthy the comparison, for the Matterhorn has been as- cended by ardtes on all sides, though, of course, its easiest line of ascent is manifold harder to conquer than is the ordinary route of Long's Peak. Before narrating our experiences on Long's Peak itself, perhaps it would be well to speak of several views of the mountain from points in and around Estes Park. One thing very noticeable is the fact that the mountain presents so widely different aspects when seen from the four points of the compass. From the plains to the southeast, two ' \^3$$i* ^5ji^" " SUMMIT OF LONG'S PEAK OVER CRAGS OF MOUNT HALLETT. LONG'S PEAK. 25 noble peaks appear as if of nearly equal altitude. From the top of Sheep Mountain, a long range (9,000 feet) near Ferguson's ranch, the final cone, only five miles away, demonstrates its superior- ity, and grandly lifts its head over the intervening wooded slopes of Estes Cone. Wind Eiver Val- ley, which lies between Sheep Mountain and the main range, is 2,000 feet lower than Sheep Moun- tain; so from this elevation one may behold a slope of 7,000 feet leading up to the summit of the principal peak. Still more majestic is its appearance from the top of Prospect Mountain, eight miles distant and overlooking Sheep Moun- tain, which is then projected against the base of the great range. But by far the most striking view is that obtained from Table Mountain, a peak on the Continental divide, about six miles to the northwest. I imagine that very few persons have beheld Long's Peak from this direction ; and the photograph from which the illustration that precedes this chapter was made, cost me many hours of climbing and much setting up of the camera and experimenting before this most char- acteristic view was obtained. The appearance of the noble mountain is like a citadel perched upon enormous bastions and protected by ramparts made by intervening walls of rock. 26 MOUNTAINEERING IN COLORADO. Mountaineers may realize, from examination of this illustration, what a splendid field it is for new expeditions, - either to follow the summit of the chain along the spur to the right, or to explore the upper canons and glacial lakelets. The nu- merous lakes among these gorges add greatly to the picturesqueness of the views. A summer spent among these rock walls would present any number of varying excursions which would show to the explorer marvellous and enjoyable sights, with the bare possibility that he might find some- thing that would add to our stock of knowledge. Members of foreign alpine clubs have thoroughly explored and photographed the ice districts of Switzerland, and partially so the Caucasus ; but the noble work of the survey parties in the sierras of Colorado has not yet been supplemented to any great extent by individual effort. The same work remains to be done among the higher elevations of the whole great chain reaching from New Mexico to Alaska, that has been done by Euro- pean alpine clubs in Switzerland, and is being marked out by the Appalachian Mountain Club in New England. Paths are to be made, trails to be cut, detail maps to be laid out, before the grandest scenes among the mountains can be shown to the tourist. LONG'S PEAK. 27 It is a rare occurrence in Estes Park to have four successive rainy days ; but so it happened in the summer of 1887, from July 14 to 17. The season, however, had been very dry, and the parched ground needed the deluge which it re- ceived. The sun appeared at intervals during each of these days, but it would soon be hidden and the storm would continue. We had set sev- eral times for an attack on Long's Peak ; but the weather had put us back, and we knew, from the whitened appearance of Mummy Mountain, that much snow was falling on the great range. At last, however, on Monday, July 18, we had a clear day, and made arrangements to start in the after- noon for Lamb's ranch, which is situated at the base of the peak, there to spend the night, and in the morning make an attempt to gain the de- sired summit. There were four of us in the party; and two of the number left Ferguson's at five o'clock, while with one companion I rode over after tea, arriving at Lamb's at eight. Even this part of the expedition is full of inter- est. The road skirts the side of Mary's Lake, and leads through wide pastures for the first two miles ; then passes up a steep hill, through a forest, with the stupendous cliffs of Lily Mountain hanging over the valley. This mountain is 11,453 feet in 28 MOUNTAINEERING IN COLORADO. height above sea-level, and its summit corresponds with the average of timber-line on the great range. The upper cliffs are steep and bare on the inner side, while on the eastern side, which is a gradual slope, heavy timber grows to the top ; hence from the plains the mountain has an entirely different appearance, showing two black summits, and is called by another name, " The Twin Sisters." Lily Lake, quite a large expanse of water, lies at the base of the mountain, and gives it its name, As we passed the lake, we saw several mallard ducks on its surface. Our host, Mr. Ferguson, tells this story : Many years ago, with one companion, he was shooting on the edge of this lake. They discharged their guns into a flock of mallards which were out on the water, but with no other effect than to cause the frightened ducks to fly over Sheep Mountain to another lake. Very soon he noticed them return- ing in his direction, and two of them flying in a straight line at as rapid a rate as possible, while the others bore away down the valley. The fore- most bird struck the lake in the centre, and dived out of sight ; and then Mr. Ferguson saw that the one following was a very large eagle, which, foiled in the pursuit, soared into a tree and alighted there. The hunters now emptied barrel after LONG'S TEAK. 29 barrel at the duck ; but they could not frighten it out of the lake, where it remained until they finally killed it. The eagle, of course, escaped. Lamb's claim is in a high, well-watered valley ; in fact, it is al- most a swamp in some places. The elevation is about 8,500 ^ feet above the sea, making it about 1000 feet above Ferguson's ranch. Mr. Lamb senior took up a homes tead claim here, some ten years ago, and for many years guided travel- lers up the peak; but for the past three years his son Carlyle has done this work, and had al- ready ascended fifty-five times at the date of our visit. He is a strong, willing guide ; and Long's Peak from Lamb's Ranch. 30 MOUNTAINEERING IN COLORADO. he worked very hard for me, for our packs were heavy. Until my acquaintance with him began, he had never climbed any of the eleva- tions west of Long's Peak. Lamb keeps a charm- ing mountain-inn ; the house, which is built of logs, is very comfortable, and our advance guard announced that they had been served to a re- markably good supper. All the supplies which he purchases he has to haul up from the plains, thirty miles distant. In the sitting-room of the house is a very large fireplace, made of rough stones, before which, while the logs were crack- ling and blazing, we sat till late in the evening, talking of the mountains ; and when we did turn in, I did not go to sleep till after twelve, and was awake at three o'clock. Perhaps the stories of our host had something to do with it ; for the elder Lamb tells some very interesting ones of his many ascents of the mountain, the most exciting of which, without doubt, was that made in company with Mr. Syl- vester C. Dunham, of Hartford, Conn., an account of which was published in the magazine " Good Company," April, 1881. Mr. Lamb's account of that day's adventure is a thrilling one, and Mr. Dunham's is equally so. When upon the summit of the peak, they were enshrouded in clouds ; the LONG'S PEAK. 31 early morning had been clear, and the distant views grand; but a storm gathered on Mummy Mountain, and swept over the great range, culmi- nating as an electric storm on Long's Peak. In Mr. Dunham's words, the cairn on the summit " hissed and crackled like a bonfire. We had sought it as affording shelter from the approaching storm, but we retired from its vicinity in a very informal manner. The cloud had now struck the base of the horn, and came boiling and rolling up the 'Trough.' Its ad- vance guard of hard, sharp pellets of ice flew straight up the face of the cliff, and in another minute we were in the midst of the tempest, a whirling volley of ice and snow, driven by an icy blast. Little points of white light danced in the air and beamed from points of the rocks ; and muttering thunder, of which neither distance nor direction could be determined, accompanied the storm." In speaking of the electrical effects, Mr. Dun- ham further states : " My own occupation [of a cavern] was attended by a violent shock, which fully convinced me that my head was burned bare as a potato. Only by the im- mediate investigation and the earnest assurances of my friends, was I convinced of my delusion. . . . After some minutes the iron-bound peak seemed to exhaust the energy of the subtle fluid wherewith the cloud was charged ; and although the tempest con- 32 MOUNTAINEERING IN COLOHADO. tinued with unabated fury, we had no longer to fear the weird and mysterious element which had sur- rounded us. We were still in the midst of a furious storm, but it was no longer a thunder-cloud in angry combat with opposing forces." The snow-storm was so severe that Mr. Dunham and Mr. Lamb had many uncomfortable experi- ences before they reached the ranch at night ; but that with electrical phenomena was, of itself, such as to make their ascent more worthy of note than any other expedition to the peak. At four o'clock the following morning we had breakfast, consisting of ham and eggs, coffee and gems ; and at 5.05 o'clock were on our way over the trail. The sky was cloudy, but the peak was clear. We rode up through spruce timber for about half an hour, and then through pines, where it was much steeper, and along the banks of a little torrent which runs down to the St. Vrain Eiver. Until within a year this route has been the only one up the mountain ; but lately a trail has been cut from Sprague's ranch at Willow Park, which joins Lamb's trail at the " Bowlder Field," though it is little used. We emerged above timber-line at 6.20 o'clock, and here were met by a snow-squall. However, the clouds were light, and a brisk west- erly wind began to disperse them. As we rode LONG'S PEAK. 33 over the pasture-land, the sun almost broke through the vapor, and our hopes of a clear day were considerably brightened. The plains were free from haze, and all the foot-hills were sharp and clear. I speak of this part of the trail as leading through pastures, and it certainly is a splendid grass country. Much more rain falls here than in the valleys, and the soil is moist and rich. The cattle, however, never go above the timber; and as the deer, big-horn, and elk have forsaken this mountain for the northwestern peaks, this sweet feed seems to go a-begging. The average altitude of timber growth on the northern slopes of the mountains is only a little above 11,000 feet, while on the southern side it is as much as 12,000 feet, especially where it can follow the water-courses. We reached the edge of what is called the " Bowlder Field " at 7.30 A. M., and there tethered the horses in good grass and near plenty of water. At 7.45 we began the hard walk to the "Key- hole," a cleft in the wall of the mountain, through which one must pass in order to climb the high peak from the west side, as the east face is inaccessible. The finest view of the great cliffs of the peak is obtained just before reaching the 34 MOUNTAINEERING IN COLORADO. " Key-hole." The face of the centre of the moun- tain is one nearly vertical wall of about 2,000 feet. There are but few so-called " precipices," even in Switzerland, which prove to be really worth the name when closely examined ; but these walls are truly perpendicular from a point about two hundred feet from the summit to a gorge far below the ridge which hides the base of the precipice. I shall refer to this marvellous wall again when relating the story of our descent. At 8.40 A. M. we were standing in the " Key- hole," having made fairly quick time, considering LONG'S PEAK. 35 the delays occasioned by my haviug a camera along. Lamb carried my twelve sensitized plates and our lunch, while I carried the camera. I mounted it on the tripod when we left the horses, and had no serious trouble with it the whole day. In fact, there were but two places on the mountain where, while I climbed or descended, I had to hand the instrument up or down to the guide. At the "Key-hole" one looks down upon a grand am- phitheatre, lying beyond the ridge just climbed. Over a deep gorge rises a mountain wall which hides the distance ; and the vapor rolling up from the depths was continually changing and lifting, adding to the grandeur of the scene. No signs of animal or vegetable life were visible. Several lakes lay in the bottom of the gorge, or at the base of snow-fields on the opposite mountain. The difficulties of the ascent of Long's Peak are frequently exaggerated. There is hardly a place on the mountain where the climber need use more than one hand to help himself up. About one hundred people have been upon the mountain annually for several years past ; but this large number is made by parties, sometimes as many as twenty, coming up from Longmont or some town by the foot-hills, and all going up at once, or trying to go up, for Lamb says that 36 MOUNTAINEERING IN COLORADO. many of them do not get beyond the " Key-hole." Many claim to be exhausted and out of breath, and lay it to the rarity of the air, but as most of these people are not in training for mountain climbing, this is not surprising : the same persons would probably fail in undertaking a similar walk at a lower elevation. Immediately after leaving the " Key-hole," the ledge traversed is quite narrow, and if one should be very clumsy or careless and slip, a fall would probably be fatal, for the rocks are placed at a very steep angle, and there is nothing to prevent a slide of at least a thousand feet to the gorge below. Yet the narrow table which runs around this side of the mountain is, on an average, about six feet in width, and there are good footing and flat surfaces of rock to step on; so there is not the least danger unless one should be dizzy. There have been no accidents on this mountain ; al- though one death has occurred just below the " Key-hole," the result of over-exertion and utter exhaustion. From the ledges we entered the " Trough," which is a deep gully running up between the main peak and a ridge of the mountain, on the right. This gully is quite steep, but free from snow and ice, although there is a large field of a I 38 MOUNTAINEERING IN COLORADO. snow on its side and base. There is a great deal of loose rock and debris strewn through it, and to traverse it is a good pull, but there is no actual climbing : it is simply a long walk. The moun- tain wall ascending on the right is very smooth and steep, but on the left the argte of the main peak is broken up into beautiful ledges, towers, and minarets ; and as the rising vapors whirled and rushed over them, now covering and then partly or entirely exposing the cliffs, the effect was wonderful. Prom the table-ledges we had been able to look down 2,000 feet upon the lakes and upon a little stream which is one of the fountain-heads of the rushing Big Thompson Eiver ; but from this curv- ing trough the view was upon the distant snow- ranges. We reached the top of the "Trough" at 10.15. Here the plains and the mountains above Boulder Canon come into the prospect ; but the most re- markable sight is the view of some wonderful columnar cliffs on the southeast spur of the peak. The upright shafts, though not detached from the face of the cliff, are cubical on their outer surface, and seem to be exactly perpendicular. The rocks on the other portions of this spur, which seem not to be so firm in texture and not tipped to vertical position, are more easily w r asted and worn away LONGS PEAK. 39 by aerial forces ; and this probably explains the formation of the long jagged arete, seen to the right of the tower in the frontispiece. This arete is but one of the many broken ridges of the peak. After a short rest we climbed the roof of the peak, and at 10.50 stood upon the summit, a large flat surface, composed of slabs of granite. It needs evidently only a pyramidal cap of a View from Long's Peak Westward. thousand feet, to make it an ideal summit. All was clear to the east; we could see the smoke from the smelters of Denver, and, far beyond, the parched plains, the most extensive view I have ever had in that direction. The great range of Pike's Peak, a hundred miles to the south of us, was so clear that I could recognize three differ- 40 MOUNTAINEERING IN COLORADO. ent summits in the chain, that I had ascended. Cheyenne Mountain, the eastern spur of Pike's Peak, was a landmark on the edge of the plains. We could see the bluffs east of the town of Chey- enne, far in the north ; and towards the west there were wonderful cloud effects over the great ranges. Some snow and hail now fell on the summit, and we had to be content to await the clearing of the storm, and meanwhile study the view and landscape in the east and trace the course of rivers on the plains. But even when the clouds were thickest in the west, there would be open- ings which would let us look into deep gorges, or show us some peak in the Eabbit Ear Range in the west, or the Medicine Bow group, the mighty range of mountains in the northwest. Our most distant view was far away to the snow-caps in Wyoming. I looked down over one low divide where Lamb pointed out trees growing on the Pacific slope. While the west was obscured, we spent some time gazing into the crater-like basin on the east peak, the sides of which are smooth and steep, but not as abrupt as the face of the peak we stood upon. For a while we thought we should have no clear views of the western peaks ; so I set up LONG'S PEAK. 41 the camera at the west end of the summit, and took two pictures of the partly exposed ranges, to secure something in the way of a view from the top, even though it should be a cloud scene ; for I feared the storm would grow fiercer, and the mist envelop our peak for the rest of the day. But soon the wind drove the covering from the Front Range, and Middle Park, with Grand River cutting a clear line through it, and all the snow mountains which encircled the high valley, were plainly shown to our expectant eyes. Then, as we waited, the high pile of cloud, witli its lower fold resting on the range, was driven to the southeast, and the peaks Gray, Torrey, and the Mountain of the Holy Cross gradually ap- peared ; and with the exception of the great mass of Mummy Mountain, we had secured a complete view of all the peaks and ranges ever visible from this famous elevation. A long streamer of cloud stretched away from the top of the Mummy (which is the next peak in height to Long's Peak, in this district) ; but it held fast to the summit, and refused to reveal the crest of the mountain. The Elk, Rabbit Ear, and Medicine Bow ranges were now clear. Estes Park lay spread out like a quiet green pasture, and Willow Canon made a deep black cut up through the mountains to the 42 MOUNTAINEERING IN COLORADO. northwest, towards the Medicine Bow Range. A long snow-line marked those mountains. We reluctantly left the top at one o'clock, having remained there two hours. The outlook facing us going down the " Trough " was grand ; the smooth surface of the rocks now on our right, and the towers and broken ridge on our left, made a magnificent frame through which to view the distant ranges. In this gully Lamb had a fall, and for a moment I was dazed at seeing my much-prized plates spinning in the air; but luckily there was nothing damaged, as I found, much to my wonderment, when I un- packed at night. The " Key-hole " was gained at 2.10 P. M. ; and then we followed down the " Bowlder Field" un- der the stupendous precipices of the peak. On this field, covering perhaps a hundred acres, are strewn great slabs of granite, some as much as twenty feet in width and thirty feet in length, and between them are heaped bowlders, great and small. These rocks must have been levelled by the action of frost, which split them from the once higher ridges, and left them here in past ages, in the days when Long's Peak may have had the hypothetical cap which I have desired for it. Even now this great mountain shows signs 43 of disintegration ; the northern precipice is scarred and worn, and seamed with enormous cracks ; slabs are loosened from its cliffs, and hang, to all appearance, like thin pieces of slate from its sides. But all the despoiling of the mountain, upon this face, is by vertical cleavage ; and there are no changes going on that will destroy the absolute precipice which now exists.* I have already referred to precipices and so- called precipices. It is probably true that Ameri- cans are more familiar with the Alps than with the Rocky Mountains ; for the high valleys of Switzer- land are so easy of access, and the distances are so small, that one can cross many glacier passes and ascend important peaks with much less trouble than he can visit such an out-of-the-way place as Estes Park and climb the mountains which surround it. Many are undoubtedly famil- iar with the view of the Matterhorn as seen from Zermatt. The east face the one seen from Zer- matt is generally spoken of as a precipice, and looks like one too ; but Whymper said of it, in his * It seems to me that the explanation of the formation of this cliff is not easily found ; but I would refer others who, like myself, may have an interest in the question of the general formation of the range, to Clarence King's "Report of the Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel," article "Col- orado Range," Section I., by Arnold Hague. 44 MOUNTAINEERING IN COLORADO. account of his seventh attempt to climb the moun- tain, " that the east face was a gross imposition ; it looked not far from perpendicular, while its angle was, in fact, scarcely more than 40." The ascent of the Matterhorn from Breuil is probably one of the most difficult climbs that has ever been attempted and accomplished ; yet when standing above Breuil, one can see plainly how the moun- tain is broken up into ledges, and in no place is there a vertical surface of more than 500 feet. A peak of peerless beauty in the Alps is the Zinal-Kothhorn, near Zermatt. Placed far back on the range, this mountain is not at all popular, and is not even visible from Zermatt, the great mountaineering centre. But those who have looked upon its steep sides from a near view-point would say that they had looked upon a precipice, and one who has scaled its cliffs would certainly carry away a vivid impression of the vertical. Al- though made up of a series of precipitous ledges, the mountain-side falls far short of making straight up and down lines. The opposite side of the Rothhorn also makes a grand rock-slope, too steep for snow to lie on, yet that is also placed at an angle of about 40. But the tower on Long's Peak exposes an unbroken front of 1,200 feet, as smooth as the side of Bunker Hill Monu- LONG'S PEAK. 45 merit. Former estimates have credited the preci- pice with 3,000 feet of altitude. We should have to look to the walls about the Yosemite, to find The Cliffs of Long from the East Side. anything superior in actual vertical heights to those of the Front Range. I know that our party lingered long gazing at this sheer cliff; and only 46 MOUNTAINEERING IN COLORADO. the fact that we were liable to be benighted in the forest forced us to hurry away. We reached the limits of the " Bowlder Field " at 3.30 P. M., and mounting our horses were at Lamb's at 5.20 o'clock. But, sad to relate, as we reached the lower edges of timber-line, we heard thunder booming on Estes Cone and saw flashes of lightning on the upper peaks. The dashing rain was immediately upon us, and we rode into Lamb's enclosure at a gallop, camera and sensi- tized plates dancing on my horse's back at great risk, and all of us drenched by the torrents which were poured upon us. II. HIGH up on the northeastern slopes of Long's Peak is a lonely lake situated under the re- markable precipice. Not easy of access, I was unable to visit it in 1887, but put this trip down in a list of expeditions for 1888. Lamb wrote me during the winter reminding me that this alone was worth another trip to Estes Park, especially as no one, to his knowledge, had ever been beyond the lake to the base of the perpen- dicular cliff. For the purpose of accomplishing this long- LONG'S PEAK. 47 contemplated trip, accompanied by my wife I drove in a blackboard from Ferguson's to Lamb's Lake on Long's Peak, Lily Mountain in the Distance. early in the morning of July 11. The valley in which Lamb's cabin is located lies between Lily Mountain on the east and Long's Peak on the 48 MOUNTAINEERING IN COLORADO. west. Finding that we had the time for it, Car- lyle Lamb and I ascended Lily Mountain in the afternoon. We started for a point midway be- tween the north and south peaks. These peaks I have already referred to, as being called on the plains the "Twin Sisters." In the ascent we found a cold spring immediately under the final ledges of the south peak. Lamb informs me that good springs burst out from the ledges all along the west side of the mountains. It hardly seems as if enough snow and rain fell on the range to keep up the supply, but the springs are ever- flowing. At four o'clock, two hours from the ranch, we were on the summit of the north peak. The clouds were high in the west, and at times ob- scured the sun, and their great shadows were seen moving over the wide plain. The view of Long's Peak was very fine, for, on account of our great altitude (11,453 feet) and our proximity, we could look into the upper canons and gorges. The tramp up Lily Mountain well repaid me, for it yielded good results in photographs of the Front Eange from a new stand-point. A friend joined us at Lamb's in the evening, and early in the morning, accompanied by Carlyle, we rode awav, bound for the marvellous lake. We LONG'S PEAK. 49 followed the usual trail to the peak, to a point about 500 feet above timber-line, then bore off to the left, and, without ascending very much, reached the edge of the gorge which holds the tarn to which we were going. From the brink of this gorge several other lakes were seen rest- ing far below us. Making the horses fast to some ' big rocks, we " let down," as Lamb's phrase has it, into the gorge. Descending as little as possi- ble, we made for the water, which was hidden from view by a great dike which holds it in. We reached our goal at ten o'clock, three hours and a quarter from Lamb's. We estimated the size of the lake at a quarter of a mile long and one fifth of a mile wide. We skirted above it on the north side, and a half-hour was consumed in going the length of it. The occupation was neither climbing nor walking ; it was a continual jumping from slab to bowlder. There is no beach by the lake, only a mass of big rocks on the north and west sides. The dike on the east is solid and smooth, while on the south side a nearly vertical cliff runs down straight into the water to a great depth. Wherever there is a break in this cliff, snow fills the gullies, hangs over, and is mir- rored in the water. There is no passage-way along that side. When we saw it the lake was free 4 50 MOUNTAINEERING IN COLORADO. from ice, with the exception of two small floating masses. The elevation is 11,000 feet. We did not stop long at the lake, but continued on and up till we . ^ !JU)M|I . , , ,,..^ ^^^^^_ reached the base of the snow- field, only the upper- edges of which are visible from any point be- 1 o w or from any distant m o u n- tains that I had as- c e n d e d. We fol- lowed the winding ice -stream for three quarters of an hour, and were greatly surprised to find a snow-field whose whole length it would surely require an hour for a fast walker Winding Snow-field on Long's Peak. LONG'S PEAK. 51 to surmount from base to summit. In its wind- ing course downward, the track of the snow-slope is first directly south, then turns east. Curving again sharply toward the north, a very steep arm joins it in the bend from the south. Soon it turns to the east, and is joined by another tribu- tary from the north. The end of the trunk is about two hundred feet above the lake. The surface of the snow was hard and granular, and gave good footing, and ascending by it was much easier than by the rocks. At the base of the precipice the barometer registered 900 feet above the lake, making the elevation 11,900 feet, or 2,371 feet below the summit of the peak. This fact, together with other observations, gave us opportunity to estimate the height of the vertical cliff above us. Commencing 300 feet below the summit, the cliff plunges straight down for at least 1,200 feet, and is only a little removed from vertical for the remaining distance of nearly 900 feet. A stone thrown from the upper edge of the precipice, if projected out but a little, would reach the snow 2,000 feet below, before finding lodgment. While we were there, debris dislodged from a point half-way up fell upon the ice with a crash. We did not linger to investigate. At a point on the snow which we paced off as 52 MOUNTAINEERING IN COLORADO. two hundred feet wide, we placed a number of cairns, in line with two larger stone men, one placed on the lower or moraine side, and one on the ledges or upper side, planning a second visit in order to observe whether the ice moved at all down the mountain. There was hardly any slope at this station. We observed but one crevasse, a small one, about a foot wide, near the precipice. Against the base of the cliff and from the sides of the mountain the ice had pulled away, and deep chasms and rifts were shown. Again, on July 28, we visited Lamb's ranch. This time Mr. Benjamin Ives Oilman was to be my companion in a second visit to the lake, snow- field, and precipice. An evening spent before Lamb's big fireplace is always enjoyable, and that night we discussed the probabilities of our meeting with some mountain lions that had been observed near the trail the day before. In the morning we were ready to start at 6.40 o'clock. Close examination of our fire-arms made us shiver. I carried an old double-barrelled shot- gun, and was provided with a number of charges of buckshot; but one trouble with the weapon was that, after firing it, it was necessary to use a knife blade to press back the pins that discharged the cap. This would necessitate lively work in a LONG'S PEAK. 53 close encounter with a puma, if two shots did not kill. Lamb gave Mi*. Gilman his little revolver with only three cartridges in it, which was all the stock at the ranch. He reserved for himself a small jack-knife. But notwithstanding our weak armor we turned off from our route to the lake when a little above timber-line at half-past eight, and scrambled for an hour among the ledges where the " lions " had been seen ; but careful search failed to reveal them, and we reasoned that they had left the mountains, as there were no fresh tracks. These beasts are very shy. Carlyle said that one crossed his claim near the corral the previous winter, but was never seen again ; and that he probably " lit out " of the valley on dis- covering that it was inhabited by man. Our going out of the way was repaid by the glorious view that we had of the Front Eange from the ledges ; but it required haste to reach the lake by noon, which we did, and later lunched far up under the precipice. We then examined the line of cairns which were on the snow. The end cairns, which had been placed on a level with the snow, were now six feet above it, showing that the snow had sunk that amount. Mr. Gilman sighted across the line. He looked amused. " How did you get them so 54 MOUNTAINEERING IN COLORADO. straight ? If you wanted to prove motion, why did you not place them in a curve ? " The fact was settled; there was no motion in that ice- stream, though Lamb and I thought his remarks rather complimentary to the thoroughness of our work. Section of Snow-field on Long's Peak. The great amount of settling of the snow-field seemed strange to us, as there appeared to be but little surface melting ; but we noted one fact which explained it in part at least. At a point where the trend of the snow crosses the gorge, and on the lower side, is a lateral moraine, the top of which is some twenty feet above the ice at its lowest mark. Upon the lower side of this mo- LONG'S PEAK. 55 raine, and about sixty feet below the top, a torrent bursts out of the rocks, which comes from under the snow of the opposite side, and has worked its channel through the debris. The stream was such a one as would come from a fire-department hose, without nozzle and half turned off. The water spurted up about a foot. This day we spent more time about the lake, and lingered long on the dike at its exit end. Notwithstanding the grand scenery above us, one thing below received our marked attention, and that was a great lateral moraine, which, commenc- ing but a little way below our position, ran for a long distance down into the valley, and revealed what must have been the might of the ancient glacier that carried the stones down to form it. Similar scenes are repeated on the peaks near Long's, and all tell the same story. All along the Front Eange to the westward of Estes Park, snow clings as beautiful cornices, cutting the sky-line in the sierra notches ; as broad shining expanses it lies in hollows at the head of the deep canons ; in the form of icebergs it floats in semi-frozen lakes ; and as bands or winding ice-streams it fills grooves on the rock fronts of precipitous peaks. The hot sun and clear dry air of Colorado have nearly prevailed in the struggle against the rule 56 MOUNTAINEERING IN COLORADO. of ice, and what perpetual snows remain are but slight traces of the vast ice-fields that once cov- ered the country. The creaking of grounded ice- bergs, the cracking of granulated snow, or the rumbling of waters under the rocks are but feeble mutterings in this nearly hushed and silent region of cliff and bowlder, compared with the crash of avalanche and roar of torrents that once must have reverberated among the crags and ledges. In many parts of our continent, where rains have come in floods and all aerial forces have had full play, the tracing of past glacial action is only possible to the skilled and persevering geologist. In Colorado, however, on account of the lack of moisture and frost, many records of geological interest remain essentially unchanged by time, and we see uplifted strata near the mountain tops, banded structures of granite on the mountain sides, and rnorainal debris at the mountain base, the rocks remaining much as they were originally reared, compressed, or distributed. Age upon age of geologic time has passed since the ice crowded down the whole length of the gorges, and filled the narrow valleys, but the length and magnitude of the ancient glaciers are attested by the present aspect of these valleys; and though the active forces are confined to the mountain tops, their LONG'S PEAK. 57 past work in the lower country is plainly seen, more plainly, perhaps, than in any other locality. A series of mighty rocky barriers crosses the canon beds at frequent intervals, marking the suc- cessive stages of the retreat of the ice up through the gorges ; while, sweeping away from the base of the peaks, are great lateral moraines, many hun- dred feet high, extending to a considerable dis- tance. Such is the huge moraine in Willow Park. Five hundred feet in height at the base of the mountains, it runs with true tapering lines far down into Estes Park, its limits being marked by a row of straggling bowlders. The path of the ancient glacier which brought down the rocks from the mountain tops to form the ridge, has been traced high up into the range, showing that it must have been at least ten miles long, with tributaries nearly as large. On the opposite side of Long's Peak from that which we were exploring are a number of mo- raines similar in appearance to the one in Willow Park, but this one that we looked upon seemed to surpass them all in interest and in pictorial effect. It begins but a little way below the lake, and sweeps with a beautiful curve far down into the valley, looking like a great artificial embankment reared by a gigantic race of men. Differing from 58 MOUNTAINEERING IN COLORADO. the ledges of the foot-hills, and from the scarped cliffs of the mountain flanks, this ridge is made up of bowlders and debris ; and though over- grown on its lower portions with spruce and pine, its origin is evident to even those little versed in glacial lore. Few scenes in nature can be found like this, where the observer can so easily throw himself back into The Great Moraine east of Long's Peak. the geologic past. Far above is the remnant of the glacier, with its steep incline ; and though our investigation proved it lacking in motion, yet with its fields of itdvS and tributary couloirs it is very glacial in appearance. Spires of rock and splintered crag tower above. The wild amphi- theatre of cliffs around has been swept of debris, Across the Gorge to Escarpment of the East Peak. 60 MOUNTAINEERING IN COLORADO. and the place of deposit of the torn fragments lies far below ; for in the days of old, rocks that crumbled fell upon the moving ice-stream, which in its passage scooped out the lake bed and landed its freight in the valley. In the distance, overlooking a beautiful valley, and past the wooded slopes of Lily Mountain, one sees the wide stretch of hazy plain, in appear- ance like the ocean in a calm, and can imagine himself back in the paleozoic age, when the great inland sea rolled to the westward before the mountains were uplifted and the waters retreated toward the gulf. Surely, in resting on this dike, one dreams of a past and thinks not of the future. In descend- ing from it this day we followed down the gorge farther than in the previous trip, in order to see some very pretty falls that tumbled over the ledges. At one point the height of the fall is seventy feet, while a little farther down stream is a second fall of a hundred feet Standing be- low it the view is remarkable, for the great walls of Long's Peak are in the background. This records my last expedition of importance on Long's Peak, and I would not fail to impress on the mind of the tourist that the scenes are too grand for words to convey a true idea of their magnifi- cence. Let him, then, not fail to visit them. LONG'S PEAK. 61 III. INTERESTING as the ascent of Long's Peak may be, no one expedition by any means exhausts the attractions of the mountain. Both upon its sides and at its base, removed from the beaten trails, are forests, glens, and brooks deserving of detailed exploration. On July 4 I set out from Lamb's ranch, ac- companied by Carlyle, in search of the homes of the beaver. We explored several streams to the south of the ranch in vain for new dams and oc- cupied houses ; but equipped as we were with a camera, we found plenty of amusement in inves- tigating and photographing the ancient beaver works. On Rock Creek, which flows from the snows of Long's Peak, there are many of great interest. In the meadow through which this stream runs, an area of many acres is grown up with willows and intersected with a perfect net- work of old dams. The stream has been turned from its channel so many times that it zigzags in every direction. As a rule the novice would probably not detect the fact that these embank- ments are the work of beavers, for they are all turfed over and may be a century old. Some of them cross the meadows like causeways, others 62 MOUNTAINEERING IN COLORADO. are covered with tall rich grass ; but in one place we succeeded in getting an illustration which shows plainly the origin of the artificial ramparts. The stream had broken through the old dam, and had left exposed to view the manner of its con- struction. In places the earth had been washed away, leaving sticks projecting both parallel and Old Beaver Dam. at right angles to the length of the work. The sticks and twigs were well preserved. At places on the side of the embankment these sticks and mud were solid as if stratified in alternate layers. Near this broken dam we found the skull of a buffalo. The old houses were very interesting ; many ap- LONG'S PEAK. 63 peared like heaps of branches and decayed wood. We discovered one, however, that was much more regular in its form than the new houses observed in other localities. The channel of the stream had been changed some yards from the house, trees and shrubs had fallen away, and the an- cient dwell- ing, left on a high and dry spot, had set- tled into a regular conical heap. My observations in general lead me to think that the bea- vers do not intend to build their houses so as to be conspicuous, as often portrayed, but rather choose to have them appear as a mere heap of brush which might have collected in a natural manner. Old Beaver House. 64 MOUNTAINEERING IN COLORADO. Another day Mr. Hallett, Mr. Oilman, and I were exploring the sources of Wind Eiver, upon the northern slopes of Long's Peak. Within a few years Mr. Sprague. the proprietor of the ranch in Willow Park, has c u t a New Beaver Dam. trail to the peak, which runs by the side of this little stream for a few miles. At a point where it was a little too deep to ford, he laid down a few aspen-trees to answer for a bridge. Our LONG'S PEAK. 65 route intersected this trail, and we made use of it for some distance; but when we came to the banks of the stream, we found its passage im- possible, for a large deep pool lay immediately in the place where the trail led down to the brook. For a moment the cause of the pool was a mystery, but peering beyond we caught a glimpse of the newly made dam, and there dawned upon us the explanation of the disap- pearance of the lightly built bridge. To save labor the cunning beavers had made use of the cut aspens, and had worked the greater part of them into their dam. It took us over an hour to cut an opening through the woods at a place where we found a suitable ford to cross the stream, and thus flank the breastworks of the obstructionists. After quite a long search we discovered the re- cently built house, hidden among aspens and wil- lows in such a wild spot that, without having seen the breakwater in the stream below, no one would have suspected the existence of the dwelling. Clear cool water flowed by its base. Mirrored in the pool one would hardly know where the trees and tangled brush ended. The house was placed on the edge of the stream, and some of the poles forming it projected over the water, so that the 5 66 MOUNTAINEERING IN COLORADO. edifice seemed to overhang. A well-worn path led from a steep bank near the log and mud house up through the forest. Large trees lately felled lay around, and had been completely stripped of their bark. From the freshly cut twigs observed, it was evident that the animals had been at work the night previous, and only a few hours before our arrival. Under a tree we found a number of %"f' : .: Inhabited Beaver House. freshly cut sticks, all of the same length, about eighteen inches, and of a nearly uniform diam- eter, one and one-half inches, which we sup- posed the beavers had provided to use for dividing the interior of their house into apartments, or more probably to make an upper room. This latter work they accomplish by thrusting one end " We three. 68 MOUNTAINEERING IN COLORADO. of the sticks into the sides of the house from the inside, the other end projecting nearly to the centre of the interior. Placed thus in a circle, an opening is left through which the animal can crawl and rest high and dry. This upper story is necessary, because the streams are liable to rise suddenly and flood the ground floor. Dependent principally upon aspens and willows for food, the beaver is certainly hard pressed now to maintain his " claims " in Estes Park, for the pre-empters are fast taking up all the land where these trees thrive. Higher up in the canons, the willows entirely disappear, the aspens are scarce, and there will soon be nothing for the beaver to do but to migrate beyond the range. This day we spent so much time among the beaver works that the object of the expedition, an intended trip to the headquarters of the south fork of the Thompson, was defeated ; but a pro- spective hard tramp was replaced by an enjoyable scramble in the afternoon among ledges on the slopes of Long's Peak ; and this, with the episode of the beaver dam and the bagging of grouse, that fell to our gun, made the day one of the most delightful that I passed in the Eockies. PRECIPICE ON MOUNT HALLETT. CHAPTER III. MOUNT HALLETT. AFTER having made the ascent of Long's Peak and a number of lower elevations, I was bent on investigating the rock walls of the range that extend around to the northwest from Long's Peak to Hague's Peak, the eastern face of which in many places rivals the mural cliff of Long's Peak itself. As observed from high points in the centre of Estes Park, it is evident that there is but one pass in the chain, and that is over Table Mountain. The rest of the range is one solid rampart, at least as far as Willow Canon, and impassable for pack mules. In the northern Rockies the difficulties to be considered when attempting to cross the chain depend upon whether pack-mules and horses can be gotten over it or not ; for it must be remem- bered that their aid is absolutely necessary for the success of any long expedition, as there is no com- fortable hotel, nor even a log-cabin, to be found on the western side of the ridge. For hunting expe- 70 MOUNTAINEERING IN COLORADO. ditions the beasts have to carry blankets, flour, coffee or tea, salt, and pork ; no sugar or milk is allowed. For such an expedition as is to be de- scribed, a pack animal is not generally required ; but as I had a camera and plates to carry, it was necessary for me to have a horse, and to ride as far as possible. The ideal way to climb moun- tains is to have nothing whatever to carry, no camera, no theodolite, no rifle, nothing to load one down, except perhaps a cracker and a bottle of cold tea to sustain one's self during the walk. But in all my ventures during the summer of 1887 I carried my photographic apparatus to the highest ledges. Therefore I always rode a horse as far above timber-line as a route could be found for him. The first difficulty which presents itself to the mountaineer in Colorado is a lack of guides ; there is much trouble about securing them to accom- pany one even as far as trails go and as far as a horse can carry. The hunters object to climbing or walking ; and although very familiar with the country, hunting as they do all around the peaks, it is rarely that they climb to the mountain tops. One of their number, a dweller in an upper park, told me that he did not " see anything in the high mountains, and did not know about the scenery." MOUNT HALLETT. 71 " Yes," said a listener, " he don't know about anything but 'bar.'" But our little company at Ferguson's was well provided with a leader in the person of a gentleman who has a cottage near this ranch, who spends all the summer months in the mountains and knows thoroughly every trail and stream for many miles around. To him I am in- debted for all that I saw of the Front Range, e x- cepting in my ascent of Long's Peak and of some of the lower elevations. The sharpest peak in the Front Range, as seen from the valley of the Big Thompson Creek, Peak of Mount Hallett. 72 MOUNTAINEERING IN COLORADO. which runs through Estes Park, is a mountain near the centre of the range, to the left of Table Mountain. It rises from the large snow-field which hangs like a true glacier to a steep ridge connecting the peak with Table Mountain. For several weeks I had looked with longing eyes at this peak and its snow surroundings, wishing to climb it in a single day from Ferguson's ranch, and to do this in connection with a ride over Table Mountain toward Middle Park. When our acknowledged leader proposed taking our little company, consisting of a member of the Appala- chian Mountain Club, the surgeon, and myself, over the mill trail to the continental divide, I had no doubt that my plans would succeed. The day fixed upon was late in August. We were to have been off at six o'clock, but it was half past six before we left the ranch. We in- tended to take a barometer, but our leader dropped it on the porch as we were packing, and it fell three thousand feet. We rode off, however, in good spirits, thinking ourselves fortunate in get- ting started even so early, for the horses had to be " rounded up " for us ; and Tom, the mule, galloped all over the hillside before he was captured. We rode down the hill and crossed the Big Thompson Creek, recrossed it to the Wind River MOUNT HALLETT. 73 Valley, then over the Wind River and south branch of the Thompson, and followed the latter by a road leading through sage-brush until we came to a flat meadow and ranch at the base of the mountain. We reached this ranch at about eight o'clock, then followed the rapid stream up through tall aspens to an old saw-mill. The timber is very heavy on this mountain, but the mill did not pay financially, as the lumber had to be hauled so far to market ; so everything has been abandoned and has gone to ruin. We were now by the side of Timber Creek, and in twenty minutes struck the trail leading through tall spruce, and left all sound of tinkling cow-bells and lowing of cattle far below us. The wood was dark, the ground damp, and wonderful flowers and moss grew on the trail. Deep-colored Painted Cups, and the tiny fragrant bells of the Linncea lorealis, the white Pyrola cldorantha, the curious Lousewort (Pedicularis racemosa), and the Arnica alpina gleamed out of this green darkness. These flowers were carefully transferred to boxes, for the inspec- tion of botanists down at Ferguson's, to whom also we carried several genuine alpine plants, found far up toward the mountain tops. We found a deep snow-bank in among the trees 74 MOUNTAINEERING IN COLORADO. a little below timber-line, which is at about eleven thousand feet above sea-level on this, the north- eastern side of the range. Here we turned off from the trail to a ledge a few steps away, from which we had a wonderful view, through a deep gorge, of the rocks belonging to the peak which we intended to scale. A thousand feet below us was a large lake, which appeared dark as night and is evidently very deep, as the sides run down steep from the edges ; we called it " Black Lake." A little higher up was another, from which the eye followed up the ravine, over bowlder waste and white snow coverings, to the large snow-field, which looked still more like a glacier than it did from the valley below. It is evident from the succession of moraines that a mighty ice-stream once filled the entire length of the canon. This scene, which has been looked upon by very few persons, is certainly alpine. Taken in con- junction with the view of the tower of Long's Peak rising in the southeast three thousand feet above the observer and exposing a grand slope with a lake nestling at its feet, few sublimer sights can be met with in the chain of the Rockies.* From the opposite side of the gorge, a vertical * See Frontispiece. MOUNT HALLETT. 75 wall rises to a height of not less than one thou- sand feet ; the face of it nearly perpendicular, a marvellous exhibition on a stupendous scale of the geological phenomenon of cleavage. The sur- face of the ridge that we stood upon is broken in masses, bowlders, and blocks, a wilderness of debris unevenly distributed, while upon the preci- pice there are no signs of uneven demolition or aqueous erosion. The rocks cleave off evenly in straight up and down planes along the whole extent of the face. After leaving the timber the trail is very in- distinct, indeed there can hardly be said to be any trail at all, a possible way for horses being marked merely by stones placed one upon another at long intervals. These were set there by our leader or some hunter, on a previous trip. While among these rocks we shot a ptarmigan. The first warning we received of the proximity of this bird was seeing the half-grown young, about' the size of quail, running around or taking flight to a distance ; they were evidently able to ( take care of themselves. Then we discovered the old bird crouching on a rock, its wings spread out so as to lie as flat as possible, and showing a few white feathers on them. This bird is heavy, though not quite so large as the grouse, but its 76 MOUNTAINEERING IN COLOEADO. power of flight is wonderful. When frightened it will rise immediately and shoot over the top of a high peak, far away. This one was only wait- ing for all its young to disappear by flight or hiding, before it would fly towards the western mountains. Later in the season the ptarmigan is perfectly white, approaching this condition grad- ually. In winter the feet are covered with white downy feathers, while in summer they are nearly bare. When disturbed in the winter they fly to the snow-fields, where it is almost impossible to distinguish their white forms. An old moraine among the rocks near where we saw the ptarmigan, was distinctly traceable for several hundred feet down the mountain, by rounded stones piled in a curving row about two feet high, reminding one of a stone-wall in the Berkshire hills. A little farther on in the ascent we had a great surprise. We were keeping very quiet and were on the lookout for ptarmigan, when we came upon three Eocky Mountain sheep, quietly browsing only a few hundred feet distant on our right. Our leader told us to duck, and said in an under- tone to me, " Follow me with your camera." I did so, and all of us dismounted and almost crawling along soon saw the big-horn again, though MOUNT HALLETT. 77 they had not observed us. The wind was "blowing a gale in our faces, so they had no scent of us. Luckily my instrument was focussed. I pointed the lens at the animals and exposed one plate, although they were not so near to us as when we first saw them. They now discovered us, and after a glance in our direction trotted off over the slope to the brow of the hill. It was remarkable how easily they moved over rocks and bowlders among which we could hardly find a way for our horses and mule. Imagine our surprise when they turned and walked a little way towards us again. I asked my friends to return to the packs for more plates, and while they were gone I focussed more carefully on the still distant ani- mals, as they stared at me, their curiosity over- coming their fear. My companions now brought up the relay of fresh plates, and retired behind some ledges farther off. At this moment, as I remained there alone by the camera, the ram stood up on his hind legs and struck out with his fore- feet as if inviting combat ; then the three stood looking at me. We were in one of the wildest spots on the mountains; a seemingly endless field of ledge and bowlder all around, snow moun- tains and rocky peaks only in the panorama ; all signs of valley or glen, tree or river, far below. 78 MOUNTAINEERING IN COLORADO. I had a moment to reflect on what I was behold- ing, and carefully adjusting the glass again on these rare creatures, closely watched them. Our leader crawled up towards me, and as the quarry showed signs of alarm I attempted to take another picture ; but I was now so excited that I took a slide out of one plate-holder before putting the cap on, and that ruined piece of glass now lies among the rocks to amuse the conies and ptarmi- gan, while the slide which I had placed on the camera was whirled far away by the strong wind. Even so experienced a hunter as my companion lost his head as the big-horn were trotting away, and exclaimed, " Take them quick, take them quick ! " Then, as they stopped once more and looked at us, he called himself bad names, saying, " I might have known they would stop again, and that there was no need of haste." But lo ! what did these sheep do but turn around and walk de- liberately toward us until they were within about a hundred feet ! We were fairly trembling with excitement, and I first took off the cap without pulling the slide. When I made this blunder they were all facing us, standing on granite ped- estals a little elevated above the general level, and in line with the broad snow-field on the cliffs back of them, which showed them in relief with The Quarry. 80 MOUNTAINEERING IN COLORADO. startling clearness. But the one seen in the back- ground in the illustration then turned ; the others stepped down from their bold positions, and the best opportunity was lost. The next moment I succeeded in capturing them as seen in the pic- ture; and then the animals decided to trot off, and we saw them no more. Hunters talk of the excitement which a novice experiences when he shoots at his first buck, but I could have shot those three big-horn without being one half so nervous as when trying to photograph them. Of the five plates which I used in trying to capture the big-horn on glass, three proved worth- less besides the light-struck one already referred to, and it was indeed exceptional good fortune that I was enabled to secure even one picture of these very shy animals. When one reflects that hunters are obliged to use every precaution in approach- ing their haunts, and sometimes are obliged to lie concealed for hours, or to crawl on the edge of dizzy precipices in order to obtain a distant shot, he will realize the value of what we saw and took away with us. I certainly wish the noble ram and his little company a long and happy life among the wild crags of the great Front Eange ; and may the rifleman's bullet never bring low the MOUNT HALLETT. 81 beautiful pair of horns carried so grandly by the leader of the quarry ! This shy, beautiful creature is fast disappearing even from the wild mountain tops, and soon traces of him may be as rare as of his former pursuer, the Indian, of whom but one not very lasting mark remains in the valley of the Big Thompson Creek. The photograph of the big-horn naturally occupies the place of honor among a great many pictures which I took in the Rockies, most of which were secured from very high elevations. The reader will perhaps pardon a little boasting when he realizes that such luck has probably never befallen a mountaineering photographer before. European climbers have been photographing for years in the high Alps, and even in more remote regions, but I doubt if a chamois has ever sat for his likeness, for it is rarely that one is closely approached. When I gaze at my picture of the big-horn and recall their appearance on the wild apex of our continent, I think of Tyndall's description of a day on the Great Aletsch Glacier, in which lie tells of watching the approach of a chamois, till through his field glass he " could see the glistening of its eyes," but " soon it made a final pause, as- sured itself of its error [in approaching so near], 6 82 MOUNTAINEERING IN COLORADO. and flew with the speed of the wind to its refuge in the mountains." Even by early travellers, the mountain sheep is described as very shy and diffi- cult of approach. Fremont's description of his first sight of this animal is very interesting : " It was on the 12th of June, 1843, that we first saw this remarkable animal. We were near the con- fluence of the Yellowstone River with the Missouri, when a group of them, numbering twenty-two in all, came in sight. This flock was composed of rams and ewes, with only one young one or lamb among them. They scampered up and down the hills, much in the manner of common sheep ; but notwithstanding all our anxious efforts to get within gun-shot, we were unable to do so, and were obliged to content ourselves with the first sight of the Rocky Mountain ram." * Persons who are unfamiliar with the game in the Rockies, or who have no idea of the wild- ness of the big-horn, I would refer to the pages of that very interesting book by Baillie-Grohman, " Camps in the Rockies," or to a paper by W. S. Rainsford in " Scribner's Magazine " for Septem- ber, 1887 ; and after reading either or both of these accounts of the chase of the big-horn, I think they will agree that it was a marvel that * Quadrupeds of North America, J. J. Audubon, edition of 1854, vol. ii. p. 166. MOUNT HALLETT. 83 such an animal could ever be photographed among the wild crags of his native ranges. Very soon after the adventure with the big-horn we reached the top of Table Mountain. The out- look was grand on all sides. We were out of the bowlder field, and could almost gallop our horses in any direction on the pebbly surface. We View from Table Mountain Southward. rode to the west end of the mountain, which we reached at one o'clock, and looked right down upon the glacier-furrowed Middle Park, and upon Grand Lake, the large sheet of water in it. This side of the mountain was broken up into ledges, not very abrupt however. The distant lines of snowy ranges were very sharp and clear in the 84 MOUNTAINEERING IN COLORADO. west, and the mountains of the Front Eange around us somehow seemed higher above us than they did from the valley below. We rode back towards the peak to some water, where there was feed for the horses, and ate our lunch; but the surgeon and I made quick work of that, and left at quarter before two for our new peak, the real goal of my eyes. We rode up the western slope, which was a very gradual ascent, to the highest patch of grass, and were surprised to find how far up we had been able to ride. We then tethered the animals, and at quarter past two attacked the rocks. We could have found a more gradual but longer ascent by bearing around to the right and keeping more to the southern side ; but for the interest of the ridge, and that we might have the snow and deep gorge in view, we bore to the left, up the edge, and after a short and rather easy climb reached the summit. The peak looks quite steep, but is deceptive. It is made up of a heap of rocks, and no ledges or precipices are upon any side but the north and northeast. We found a cairn on the summit, which was probably piled up years ago by some indefatigable member of the Survey party. Among the many peaks climbed in the West I found but three that I had any reason to believe had not been ascended before. MOUNT HALLETT. 85 We stayed on the summit for half an hour, aiid studied the landscape. The view is not as ex- tended as from Long's Peak, though nearly as fine. The great mass of Mummy Mountain, higher than our peak, hid North Park and much of the Medi- cine Bow Eange in the northwest ; but the view of Middle Park was much finer than from Long's Peak, as we were right over it. Grand Lake lay just below us. We could trace the course of the river which it feeds, winding through the deep valley on its way towards the great Colorado River and the Pacific Ocean, while on the north- east we could follow the mountain torrents that run into the Platte, and find their way to the Gulf of Mexico to be tossed about at last in the Atlantic. The area of the summit was very limited, and a good view in every direction was obtained from any rock. Lightning had evidently lately struck on the top of the peak, for freshly broken slabs were strewn around. We scanned the depths of the gorges below, and all the rock-strewn waste of Table Mountain, hop- ing to have one more glimpse of the big-horn, but they had gone to the more distant range. A wilder scene than we looked upon, they cannot find, nor better hiding-places, nor a more awful 86 MOUNTAINEERING IN COLORADO. series of cliffs to wander among than the ravines of Mount Hallett. "We ran down the peak faster than we went up, keeping yet nearer to the precipice ; and when we came to the head of the snow bank, we walked out upon it, kicking in steps with our heels, until it ran off so steep that it would have been dangerous to have ventured farther without ice- axe and ropes. There were no actual crevasses, but the snow was ridged and serrated. The centre of the field seemed to be solid ice, and there was a miniature "bergschrund next the upper rocks bor- dering on the ice. Time pressed, for we had crowded much work into one day ; so we hurried on, and mounting our horses, gained our friends near the opposite side of the snow. We had more trouble in finding a way down through the bowlders than in going up, but we finally sighted the trail at timber-line, emerged from the woods into the flat country at eight o'clock, and, with some " throwing in of steel," reached Ferguson's at nine o'clock. CHAPTER IV. TABLE MOUNTAIN. A YEAR'S absence from the glorious Rockies only tended to strengthen my interest in many scenes among them. Not the least important of these was the great snow-field lying in the gorge between Table Mountain and Mount Hal- lett, and referred to in the chapter devoted to the last-named mountain. On July 3, 1883, I was able to visit it for the purpose of making measure- ments to ascertain whether there might not be some appreciable motion in a body of snow of such magnitude. This and subsequent expe- ditions involved much hard work, though of a pleasurable nature. The results were far from satisfactory; they will be presented here, however, for what they are worth, for the benefit of any future observers who may chance to read this book. I had been preparing for the trip for several days, and had sharpened a number of stakes to drive into the ice, so that on visiting the spot 88 MOUNTAINEERING IN COLORADO. again in August it could readily be determined whether given masses of ice had moved down the slope. Unable to find any one at Ferguson's who cared to undergo the fatigue of the ascent, I asked Carlyle Lamb to join me. He kindly consented, and not only proved exceedingly obliging and helpful, but also a very agreeable companion. He rode over to our ranch at six o'clock, and we were off at seven. Lamb carried the bundle of stakes and my sensitized plates on his horse, leaving me only the tripod and small traps to bother with. He had never been over the trail before, and I only once ; but there was no trouble in finding the narrow path through the forest, which we reached in an hour. Twelve o'clock found us on the top of Table Mountain,* and tethering the horses we shoul- dered our packs and descended the gorge to the base of the ice, a thousand feet below. We did considerable exploring before selecting our route, and then found that we had taken the hardest one conceivable, for we were immediately landed in a maze of tremendous bowlders, and it took us an hour to reach the lower edge of the snow. At one point, when paying particular attention to my * Barometric observations this day gave the height of the nearly vertical cliffs of Mount Hallett as 1,100 feet. TABLE MOUNTAIN. 89 footing, a strong gust of wind took off my hat, carried it over a high ridge and dropped it down in another canon ; so I was without headgear for the rest of the day. The snow-field fills an amphitheatre, over a quarter of a mile in width at the lower rirn, with walls a thousand feet high. The general slope is northeast. The position in width is northwest to southeast. A magnificent terminal moraine locks in the ice, and the meltings from the snow escape under the rocks of the moraine at least fifty feet below the top. The subterranean waters roared on all sides. Such a wilderness of bowlders I had never been in before. All the rocks composing the moraine have come from the cliffs above, which now show but a narrow line above the ice, except on the left, or Mount Hallett, side ; this mountain still contributes bowlders and debris to the ice below. On the right side a few hundred feet of cliffs still remain, and enormous blocks had recently fallen on the ice. The greater part of the moraine was undoubtedly formed when the body of the snow was much greater than it is now, not in area, hut in depth ; yet I think the work of carrying down stones is still going on. At the base, on the right side, the field is divided, and the ice extends farther down than it does in 90 MOUNTAINEERING IN COLORADO. the centre. From this division a great medial moraine begins, which rivals the terminal in size, and extends a long way down the gorge. I selected the upper edge of this medial mo- raine for my first stake, and crowding it into the dirt, braced it up with small stones. Lamb then went out on the ice and set the stakes at intervals, in line with a rock on the Mount Hallett side of the gorge, I giving him directions as to positions with a wave of the hand. Thus he placed eight sticks in the ice. The opposite side was very steep, and he experienced much trouble in ascend- ing it ; if the snow had not been rough, he could not have accomplished the work. In the centre, where stakes Nos. 3, 4, and 5 were set, it was slippery, and the snow had been compressed into solid ice. After the line was completed I photo- graphed the range, the end of the moraine with stake No. 1 for the foreground, and the opposite rock in the centre of the distant view. I then went along the line as far as No. 5, and with a hatchet hammered the posts in firmly. We measured the distance from No. 4 to the terminal moraine, where we made a cairn and found it 162 feet. Having some stakes left, we placed one seventy feet higher up the slope than No. 4, and two more above, at distances apart of TABLE MOUNTAIN. 91 thirty-five feet ; so that the highest one was in the centre of the ice-field, and 302 feet above the mo- raine. In order to place these stakes we were obliged to chop holes in the ice, fill in around the stakes and stamp around them, as if setting fence- posts in earth. It took us two hours to accomplish this task, and it was three o'clock before we were ready to climb up the ledges. Several routes being open to our inspection, a much easier one was found than we had used in the descent. Again on Monday, July 16, I went up a little above timber-line on Table Mountain. From a ledge that I reached I observed that the extent of the glare ice in the centre of the snow-field had increased. The weather had been very warm, and had evidently consolidated much of the snow. On July 25, with Mr. Oilman I started for a third visit to Table Mountain, to look after the set stakes. We carried with us two ropes, re- spectively twenty-three and thirty-two feet long,- for the purpose of measurement. Leaving Fergu- son's at six o'clock A. M., we made rapid progress,' till when near the summit. Here, owing to my bad guiding, we took a course too low down on the north slopes of the mountain. Among some rough bowlders one of the horses fell and delayed us for half an hour. The animal's legs were 92 MOUNTAINEERING IN COLORADO. caught in such a manner that he seemed only able to flounder. We endeavored to get him out with the aid of the ropes, but all help seemed to make matters worse, and we gave it up. We were a pair of sad and helpless mortals. We were already talking of killing him to prevent a lingering death, when the beast managed to ex- tricate himself, and, though badly cut, as soon as we led him to a grassy spot he began to browse in company with his mate. An hour after this adventure we were on the snow. All of the stakes were found down, and all my labor had been expended for naught, at least so far as reliable evidence goes. One fact, however, is perhaps worth recording. Stake No. 4 was twenty-four feet below the line. One of the stakes originally put above it had moved thirty-two feet, another twenty-eight feet, which would give an average of twenty-eight feet motion in twenty-two days, or 1^- feet per day.* These three stakes were lying in little depressions, such * Such great motion in so small an ice-field (amounting to its total length in three years) seems improbable. However, this series of stakes was placed in the centre of the expanse, and at a point where the flow of ice from the south, the west, and the east seemed to join, the figures may be approximately correct. As the weather had been very warm the condition of the snow may have been such as would be requisite for the maximum of motion. TABLE MOUNTAIN. 93 as might have resulted from our chopping on the surface of the snow. The fourth stake in the series had moved fifty-two feet, but was lying on a flat surface ; so this one is left out of the cal- culation. How much of this motion was due to sliding of the sticks or to a real flowing of ice must remain for future observation to determine. The stakes set on the steeper portions of the ice were found on the moraine. The surface extent of the snow-field was about the same as when we first visited it, but it had sunk about six feet, very little, I think, by sur- face wasting. There was a continual rush of water under the moraine, but very little water running in rills on the ice. On regaining the horses I took off my flannel shirt, cut off the sleeves, and bound them around " Frank's " wounded legs. We had a dismal jour- ney home, being obliged to lead our lame horse all the way. But the accident proved a great bless- ing to the animal. Exempted from all work for the balance of the season, he passed the happiest summer of his existence since he was a colt. To his evident delight he could safely nibble around close to the ranch without fear of being driven into the corral to be saddled for the use of the un- feeling tourist. In short, he became a guest of the 94 MOUNTAINEERING IN COLORADO. place, and boarded at the expense of my friend and myself. A week or two after this adventure Mr. Ed- mands, Professor Fay, Mr. Oilman, and I walked from Ferguson's to the summit of Table Mountain and back in a day. Though the wind on the top was something furious, the two first-named gentle- men made the ascent of Mount Hallett in addi- tion. Under a sheltering ledge my companion and I passed the intervening time watching cloud effects on Long's Peak in the distance, or in look- ing down to the scene of our labor on the snow below. The appearance of the ice was about the same as when last visited. A few more crevasses had opened high up on the northwest side. It TABLE MOUNTAIN. 95 was interesting to compare this snow-field with others we had explored. It ranks third in size of those in the locality. From what facts I have been able to glean from old residents in the valleys, the seasons of 1886, 1887, and 1888 seem to mark the period of mini- mum snow-fall I am able to prove from photo- graphs that there was less snow on the mountains in 1888 than in 1887. It would appear that much of the ice forming such large bodies as the mass in Table Mountain gorge must be quite old, as from reports there has not been snow-fall enough of late to make such an accumulation. I was at a loss to account for the great extent of this particular snow-field, till Mr. Hallett gave me a clew gained from his winter's residence in the mountains. It seems that Table Mountain, being flat-topped and having an immense area, is swept by the wind-storms of winter, and when other peaks are covered with snow, it is almost entirely bare. The snow is blown into the gorge, and there accumulates. While not nearly so pic- turesque as the winding glacier-like snows of Long's Peak, it is more interesting, as there must be three times as much ice in the gorge. The explanation of its size cannot be extended to account for that of the Hallett glacier, as there 96 MOUNTAINEERING IN COLORADO. is no such flat-top mountain near by to feed it with snow ; and to explain the size of this ice- field we must take into consideration its greater altitude, and perhaps allow a larger amount of precipitation of snow. It is undoubtedly true 'that there is more rain-fall on the Mummy Eange and in Willow Canon than there is on Table Mountain. In descending Table Mountain this day, we followed the edge of the gorge nearly down to timber-line. The ledges overhanging the gorge on the Table Mountain side, not far from the summit, are truly grand, and recall the words of Burroughs : " There is a fascination about ledges. Time, old as the hills and older, looks out of their scarred and weather-worn faces. The woods are of to-day, but the ledges, in comparison, are of eternity." 'Lower down the rocks are firmer, and resemble the cliffs on the Mount Halle tt side. Yet instead of presenting a smooth front, short canons run into the sides of the mountain. Very steep are the beds of these gorges, and little sheets of water lie far below. Everything here is on a grand scale, and it was with reluctance that we turned our backs, on Table Mountain, perhaps for the last time. CHAPTER V. MUMMY MOUNTAIN. THE Mummy is an immense mountain in northern Colorado, lying directly north of Long's Peak and in line with the centre of Estes Park. It is a spur range running out to the east- ward from a point where the Front Range, Rabbit Ear, and Medicine Bow Mountains nearly meet. It has its name from its fancied resemblance to an Egyptian mummy reclining at full length, and the range has been so called for some years. The highest point, Hague's Peak (13,832 feet, King), forms the head, and a height about two miles farther to the west marks the knees of the seeming prostrate figure. On the north side of this west peak of Mummy Mountain is a large snow-field, of unusual interest on account of recent developments regarding its true character. It was discovered only a few years ago by a hunter named Israel Rowe, and in the following manner : It was in the time of the great grasshopper raid, when these insects 7 98 MOUNTAINEERING IN COLORADO. flew over the range from Utah to Colorado ; myr- iads of them fell on the snow-fields in their pas- sage, and many bears went up from the rocks to feed upon them. Hunters learning of this went up also to shoot the bears ; and in such an expedi- tion Eowe discovered what he called " the largest snow-field in the Eockies." Later he took two other hunters to see it. He afterward died while on a long hunt, but before his death mentioned this interesting discovery to the leader of our numerous expeditions in and about Estes Park. Four years ago Mr. Hallett visited it entirely alone, and nearly lost his life under circumstances which led him to wonder whether this snow-field might not be a glacier. I had seen many snow-fields in the Rocky Mountains, but none where the body and weight of the snow were sufficient to form a true glacier ; therefore, hearing Mr. Hallett's story, I was very anxious to have an opportunity to ascend the Mummy, and, relying on my knowledge gained in Alpine climbs, determine the nature of this one, a desire which happily I was able to real- ize. At the time of my visit the great snow-field had probably never been seen by other than the persons above referred to, not only because so little had been said about it, but also on account MUMMY MOUNTAIN. 99 of the distance and the difficulty of reaching it. The expedition requires parts of three days, and few travellers have the facilities for carrying pro- visions and blankets so far. Our leader, however, seeing that our ambition was unflagging, offered to show the possible glacier to another member of the Appalachian Mountain Club and myself; and so, on Monday, August 1, a folding mattress, blankets, provisions, axe, and coffee-pot in short, a complete camping-outfit were packed on Tom, the mule, and mounting our horses at 1 P. M., and leading Tom behind us, we rode away from Fer- guson's Kanch toward the Black Canon. I car- ried, strapped to the back of my saddle, a camera and tripod, and a package of sensitized dry plates. It had been my intention to take some stakes also, and to run a line of them across the snow-field for future observation, but I found that it was all that I could possibly do to carry my photographic ap- paratus to that altitude. Our trail led up through the canon, under enor- mous cliffs on the right, than which there are few finer, though on the left or south side the steep walls are lacking. Above the canon the trail winds to the left, high above the brook, and runs between two mountains thickly clad with spruce. It is identical with the one leading to Lawn Lake. 100 MOUNTAINEERING IN COLORADO. From there on, however, there is no trail, and even to this point there was no sign of the path's having been traversed for a year. Our leader showed great skill in guiding us among bowlders and through tangled dwarf spruce over the ridge of Mummy Mountain to a good camping-place. In crossing the ridge east of the Mummy's head, we had gone far above timber-line, but now had dropped down several hundred feet into the black spruce on the north side, in order to get firewood. This dwarf evergreen is very peculiar. The trees are not more than shoulder high, but the trunks, in many cases, are a foot or two in thickness. We found plenty of dead wood for our fire, and after unloading we picketed our animals in good feed and had our supper. This was chiefly from cold supplies, for we cooked nothing on the trip except coffee and toast. The altitude of our camp was about eleven thousand feet. The full moon shone brightly, and the night was very clear. We could see very easily the star e Lyrse as double, much plainer indeed than I ever saw it as such at sea-level. Our big blazing fire must have been seen from the plains far away. As a general rule hunters in the West do not make large fires, con- tradicting in this respect the Indian saying that " white man make heap big fire, git way off; MUMMY MOUNTAIN. 101 Injun make little bit fire, stay close by." The hunters do not sleep by a fire, but depend upon blankets and canvas covers for warmth. We turned in early, slept well, and were up before the sun, that we might see it rise out of the plains. And such a sunrise as we beheld ! The flat country of Larimer County is covered with artificial lakes; and as the sun came up we counted thirty-five small sheets of water glisten- ing in its bright rays. The sky was clear, except high in the east where a mass of clouds was gor- geously colored. First picketing our animals in a new place, we then had our own breakfast. We had aimed to make an early start, but with all our expeditiousness we did not get our animals saddled and under us until seven o'clock. We had considerable difficulty in getting through the dwarf spruce, which was very thick. The heavy snows of winter bow down the tops, leaving them one mass of tangled branches and twigs, while under the trees the footing for the horses is very rough. However, in half an hour we were out of the small timber, and riding over a smooth grassy surface by the side of a deep gorge on our right, which was surmounted by steep cliffs and a large snow-field. The gorge was a wild, desolate scene, it being the former pathway 102 MOUNTAINEERING IN COLORADO. of a glacier ; down through it rocks were piled upon rocks for miles. We reached the limits of the grass patches at nine o'clock, and could ride no farther. Leaving the horses, we walked up the rather steep ascent, Ancient Bed of Hallett Glacier. arriving at the foot of the snow-field in an hour. We had seen the upper snows for two hours, but had no view of the whole, mass until we were right upon it ; for an immense rocky ridge heaped high around the base hides three quarters of the snow- field until it is surmounted. All at once this scene burst upon us. A steep snow-bank ex- tended about a thousand feet above to the top of MUMMY MOUNTAIN. 103 the mountain. The water which had collected at its base had been frozen again, not solidly, but with occasional open spaces in which large blocks of ice were floating around. As the force of the wind moved them, they were lifted up by rocks or firmer ice from beneath, creaking and groaning ; then broken up into fragments, but only to form new floes. The long line of the lower edge of the ice and snow curled over in beautiful combings as it hung over the open water. The snow expanse is about a quarter of a mile in width, and entirely fills a kind of amphitheatre made by the main range of the Mummy and a spur which extends around to the northeast. In some places it makes the sky-line, but for the most part pointed rocks and towers jut up from the snow. One shaft, which we judged twenty feet in height, could not have been more than twelve inches in diameter at the base, and was of pure white quartz. The more easily decom- posed granite had fallen away, leaving this firmer vein of rock standing alone. The whole extent of the snow was covered with grooves, markings, and cracks ; a large crevasse began near the south end and extended a long way into the centre, and close examination revealed many more above and below it, running parallel with it. The longest 104 MOUNTAINEERING IN COLORADO. of these was about a hundred feet above the water at the southern extremity. Our leader said that when he visited the place four years before there were larger icebergs iu the water. It is evident how these were formed ; for when the large cre- vasses, near the water, are crowded toward the lake, the masses of ice must fall off into it, repeat- Ledges above the Hallett Glacier. ing on a small scale what happens when the ice- masses fall from the Humboldt Glacier into the Arctic Ocean. A single glance at the series of crevasses was enough to convince me that we looked upon a glacier, and further examination of the ice con- firmed the first impression. The great ridge upon MUMMY MOUNTAIN. 105 which we stood was evidently a terminal moraine formed by the glacier in past ages. What debris comes down with the ice at the present time must fall into the lake. The surface of the glacier, however, is remarkably free from stones and bowlders, caused, as we afterward determined, by the fact that the loosened masses above the ice fall to the west down the much steeper rock-fall of the mountain ; yet at one point the ledges are breaking away toward the glacier, and a few bowlders are already embedded in the ice and are on their way down the slide. Having taken two pictures of the glacier and lake from the moraine, accompanied by our leader, I carried the camera back from the ice and took a more distant view ; meanwhile the Appalachian had strolled along to the south end to look at the big crevasse. It seemed desirable to secure three negatives of this section of the ice ; but as we had only one sensitized plate with us, I started back to the foot of the glacier, where we had left the lunch and other luggage, for another plate-holder containing two plates. And now an episode oc- curred which for the time being quite eclipsed the pleasurable excitement of our discovery with one of a more thrilling, if less agreeable sort. I had gone about half-way when my companion 106 MOUNTAINEERING IN COLORADO. called out, "A bear! a bear! come here quick!" I turned, ran back, and saw an immense range grizzly standing on a rock about two hundred feet from us; he had just come out from behind a huge bowlder. I took his picture as quickly as possible. This was probably the first time that " old Ephraim " had ever had his picture taken in his own haunts; and if he could only have known what was required of him, he might just as well have sat for it. I then saw the Appalachian, standing very near to the bear, but back of him, looking at him through his field-glass as coolly as could be. The bear was of tremendous size, and must have weighed a thousand pounds. His color was for the most part brown, but his back and the top of his head appeared nearly white. He was of the species called by the hunters " silver- tipped grizzly;" and as the sun was shining very brightly directly upon his back, the reflection was such as to give it a silvery-white appearance. He was evidently trying to make up his mind whether MUMMY MOUNTAIN. 107 to come down to us and take his lunch, or betake himself off up the mountain, or, as the local phrase has it, " pull his freight." I had not thought of the bear's attacking us, though I had wondered at the Appalachian's coolness, but now the beast was growling and snapping. Suddenly my companion suggested, "Suppose he should de- cide to come and take us." Then I proposed that I go for the other plates, and that he get his shot- gun, our only weapon, at the same time, and load it with buckshot. " That would not be of much use," he answered ; " but we can do one thing. Here, take this knife ! " and he drew a large butcher-knife from his belt and handed it to me. " If he turns on us, I will wait till his nose touches the jnuzzle of the gun before I let him have it, and you must do the best you can for yourself with the knife ; this will be our only salvation, but it will take lots of nerve to await the proper moment to shoot." Our motions were so lively that when we got back to our position by the camera, the bear had decided to move off, and was soon out of sight behind a ridge, giving a sort of snort as he turned away. Our fear was now that he would run down the mountain to where the horses and mule were tethered and stampede them. If the animals should get a sight I 108 MOUNTAINEERING IN COLORADO. of the bear, they would break their legs or necks in trying to escape. This catastrophe must be averted at all hazards, for without the pack rnule we could never carry the camera and plates back to camp before nightfall, and a night at this ele- vation, without blankets, would be horrible. We started at a brisk run over the rocks, hoping to head him off. But he travelled so rapidly that before we saw him again he had covered a great distance in a circle around us, and was about three hundred feet below our position, crossing a large snow-field, and luckily headed away from the horses. He stopped, turned, and looked at us. Standing out on the white snow-field, with steep ledges and jagged cliffs rising high in the back- ground, his figure was certainly very picturesque. It was impossible to photograph him, as he was so far below us ; so my companion asked, " Shall I give him a shot ? " " Pepper him," I responded. " He may turn on us." " Pepper him," I said again. Bang went the gun, and the beast jumped. Bang ! another charge of buckshot followed, and the bear gave another leap forward, although the effect of the shot was probably no more upon him than the cut of a whip would have been if given \ ,i * l folia. C. pallida. C. pallida, var. occidentalis. Orthocarpus. 0. luteus. Pedicularis, LOUSEWORT. P. Gra-nlandica. P. Parryi. P. racemosa. P. procera. Aphyllon. A. uniflorum. Utricularia, BLADDERWORT. U. vulgaris. Monarda, HORSE-MINT. M. tistulosa. Brunella. B. vulgaris. ScuteUaria, SKULLCAP. S. resinosa. S. galericulata. Stachys, WOUNDWORT. S. palustris. Chenopodium, PIGWEED. C. capitatum. Eriogonum. E. alatum, E. heracleoides. K. flavum. Oxyria, MOUNTAIN SORREL. O. digyna. Polygonum, KNOTWEED. P. tenue, var. microsperinum. P. viviparum. Shepherdia, BUFFALO-BERRY. S. C'anadensis. Betula, BIRCH. B. glandulosa. Alnus, ALDER. A. viridis. A. incana, var. virescens. Populus, POPLAR. P. tremuloides. P. angustifolia. Habenaria, ORCHID. H. obtusata. 168 APPENDIX. Spiranthes, LADIES' TRESSES. S. Komanzoffiana. Goodyera, RATTLESNAKE PLAN- TAIN. G. Menziesii. Listera. L. cordata. Iris, BLUE FLAG. I. Missouriensis. Sisyrmchium, GRASS. S. mucronatum. Allium, ONION. A. cernuum. BLUE - EYED Smilacina, FALSE SOLOMOJS'S SEAL. S. amplexicaulis. S. stellata. Lilium, LILY. L. Philadelphicum. Lloydia. L. serotina. Calochortus. C. Gunnisoni. Streptopus. S. amplexifolius. Zygadenus. Z. elegans. Sagittaria, ARROWHEAD. S. variabilis. CONIFERS (Pine Family). Juniperus, JUNIPER. J. commuuis, var. alpina. J. Virginiana. Abies, FIR. A. subalpina. Pseudotsuga, DOUGLAS SPRUCE. P. Douglasii. Picea, SPRUCE. P. Engelmanni. P. pungens. Pinus, Pine. P. edulis. P. ponderosa, var. scopulorum. P. contorta. LYCOPODINE^J (Club-mosses). Selaginella. I Lycopodium. S. rupestris. L. annotinum. FILICES (Ferns). Polypodium vulgare. Cryptogramme acrostichoi- des. Pteris aquilina. Asplenium Trichomanes. Phegopteris Dryopteris. Cystopteris fragilis. Woodsia Oregana. EQUISETACE-ffi (Horse-tail Family). Equisetum arvense.