their their fantastic and the with which they spring out of the ice rendering them peculiarly wild and striking these the mountains of are the beyond them you behold a sublime wilderness of mountains their snowy towering together in crowded abundance peak beyond peak swelling higher higher as they sweep on southward until the point of the range is reached on mount near the head of the at an elevation of nearly feet above the level of the sea westward the general flank of the range is seen flowing away from the p in smooth a sea of huge gray granite waves dotted with lakes and meadows and with that grow steadily deeper as they in the distance below this gray region lies the dark forest broken here and there by and and yet beyond lies a yellow belt marking the broad plain of the san bounded on its farther side by the blue mountains of the coast turning now to the northward there in the immediate is the glorious crown with cathedral peak a temple of architecture a few degrees to the left of it the gi ay massive form of mountain to the right while tower peak castle peak silver mountain and a host of noble companions as yet nameless make a sublime show along the of the range eastward the whole region seems a land of desolation covered with beautiful light the basin of with its one bare lake fourteen miles long s valley and the broad table land at its head dotted with and the mountains op the massive range even the in height these are spread map like beneath you with countless beyond passing and one another and fading on the glowing horizon at a distance of less than feet below the summit of mount you may find of the san and s rivers sting forth from the ice and snow of the that load its while a little to the north of here are found the highest of the and thus the fountains of four of the principal rivers of are within a of four or five miles lakes are seen gleaming in all sorts of places � round or oval or square like very others narrow and drawn close around the peaks like silver the highest reflecting only rocks snow and the sky but neither these nor the nor the bits of brown meadow and that occur here and there are large enough to make any marked impression upon the mighty wilderness of mountains the eye rejoicing in its freedom about the vast expanse yet returns again and again to the fountain peaks perhaps some one of the multitude special attention some gigantic castle with and or some cathedral more abundantly than s but generally when looking for the first time from an all embracing like this the inexperienced observer is oppressed by the incomprehensible grandeur variety and abundance of the mountains rising shoulder to shoulder a view of the high beyond the reach of vision and it is only after they have been studied one by one long and lovingly that their far reaching become manifest then penetrate the wilderness where you may the main telling es to which all the is subordinate are quickly perceived and the most complicated clusters of peaks stand revealed and fashioned like works of art � eloquent monuments of the ancient ice rivers that brought them into relief from the general mass of the range the too some of them a mile deep wildly through the mighty host of mountains however lawless and at first sight they appear are at length recognized as the necessary effects of causes which followed each other in harmonious � nature s poems carved on tables of stone � the simplest and most emphatic of her could we have been here to observe during the period we should have overlooked a wrinkled ocean of ice as continuous as that now covering the of filling every valley and with only the tops of the fountain peaks rising darkly above the rock ice waves like in a stormy sea � those the only hints of the glorious now smiling in the sun standing here in the deep brooding silence all the wilderness seems motionless as if the work of creation were done but in the midst of this outer we know there is incessant motion and change ever and anon are falling from yonder peaks these cliff bound the mountains of seemingly and immovable are flowing like water and grinding the rocks beneath them the lakes are their granite shores and wearing them away and every one of these and young rivers is the air into music and the mountains to the plains here are the roots of all the life of the valleys and here more simply than elsewhere is the eternal of nature manifested ice changing to water lakes to meadows and mountains to plains and while we thus contemplate nature s methods of landscape creation and reading the records she has carved on the rocks however imperfectly the of the past we also learn that as these we now behold have succeeded those of the age so they in tm n are withering and vanishing to be succeeded by others yet but in the midst of these fine lessons and i had to remember that the sun was far to the west while a new way down the mountain had to be discovered to some point on the timber line where i could have a fire for i had not even myself with a coat i first the western spurs hoping some way might appear through which i might reach the northern and cross its or pass around the lake into which it flows and thus strike my morning track this route was soon sufficiently unfolded to show that if practicable at all it would require so much time that reaching camp that night would be out of the question 