The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1878-07-18

The trail winds up through Bear Greek
Canou--up by the Little and Big Falls,
amid scenery whose grandeur is far beyond |
nv power of description, amid the most
beautiful and fragrant wild howers-up
60 Jones Park-up by Lake Moraine-up
until we got beyond the timber line and
vet were three miles below the peak. Here
we camped for the night, on grassy slope
where flowers were growing. robins sing
ing, prairie dogs barking, and unmeasur-
able drifts of solid snow not nucn over
stones throw from our tent.
II didn't take long to unsaddle the
Burros, set our tent and spread our blan
kets. and If most of the party hadn't been
40 hoplessly lazy, it wouldn't have taken
long TO gather in pile OF dead wood for a
FIRE and couple buckets of ice-cold water
from a neighboring gulch to make the eof
fee on which we RECALLED, After the coffee
came pipes and songs; then we turned
in'-nominally for sleep but practically
stories. Our tent was rather small and
we had to leave about half the Wabash
man outside He was tall, row bonedfel-
| low aud reminded me of pair of Siamese
| telegraph poles When he mounted his
| Burro, the guide had to shut him up like
lack knife to keep his fees from dragging.
/ He looked as though he had devoted the
best Fart of his life to vain tussle with
with ''fever u ague", and then had been
warmed up aud drawn through rolling
!, mill or passed under trip hammer.
Il He had a disagreeable way of turning
over every time anybody said anything
funny, and as lay next to him the immi.
uent peril of being crushed preeluded al
Ia bla rapnoa
We two mess men--the two spokes oil
our wheel who had been firmly driven 10
to the hub"-were possessed with sor
: of school girl fancy to see the sun rise from
i the peak. Out of Difference to them w
all turned out about 2 o'clock poked up tn
kitchen fire, took in few pots of hot cot
fee and with Pixies Peak or bust" be
aiming Cd every countenance we staItet
on foot. This part of the trail was the
Il Impossible for Burros on account OF tn
:. snow drifts.
T | wish to remark, and my language
: plain, that climbing three miles of boulde
and snow-drift, most of the way so stee
g that the climbers nose is about as nea
e the Earth as his toes, is task for whic
a nothing but the profoundest love of natur
- can furnish sufficient ambition. 1t mus
. be horne 10 mind that at this altitude th
t. barometer scores very low, that the a
it. mosphere is very thin. A very little e.
re erti0n gives man sense of goneness
- that makes him feel like lying down con
- posedly, without regard to the varioI
10 theological theories as to his future. OEC
es in seventeen thousand years is as often
its a man wants to climb Pixies Peak in Jun
10 unless he is government official und
a. good pay.
&c Yet the trip repaid me, the signal st
ton building is a low, one story, sto
lis structure. almost buried 10 a huge snoy
"a drift When we got there Manag
Black was talking with Old Probs
&c " ashington aud telling him how wind al
to weather were running on the Peak.
he vast ocean of billowy cloud lay below a
,rr beyond us. 1t seemed as though o
might walk over it or swim through
'o Through this mass the sun rose, brig
my clear aud dazzling, making the Peak see
wn like bending field of ice,
len Struggling up the sleeps had worked
,.l into a thorough state of perspiratlon,
though wearing light spring suit. /
ISIS government thermometer recorded ab'
of 80 o--freeziug point. Yet felt entir
comfortable and suffered none from CT
ON, The scenery of the Peak can be brit
e described; pile of old red sandstone
up into a cabin not unlike the picture OF
are Esauimaux Indians family residence, I
,ur- used for a signal station; the balance
,;,o snow and cloud, dazzling sun or crash
thunder storm. But the human S
anu which can look upon this simple subim
me this inexpressible wilderness and grand
'eak without reading life long lesson of
,;Ha Power and Majesty of its Creator, n
indeed be callOus to every ennobling Sc
!" timeDt. Il. NJ. HAVERSTICF
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