Los Angeles herald., 1892-06-15

I6COkulZtU Nv tu0 RA0CtAS<0 VyV "a t~<~
guide. Anon the winding and tortuous
with the vision OF the Santa Ana valley
merging into the San Gabriel in piano.
ramic splendor, thousandsof feet below
Then came vast masses OF primevai
rock, torn and shattered and upturned
into fantastic forms by tremendous
storms OF ages and mighty convulsions
Of nature, and next the wary, sure-footed
mustangs and burros slowly and eau.
tiously threaded their way over I'M
mense sloping beds of rounded granite
boulders, ranging from three inches to
three feet in diameter, rounded by the
erosive action OF some mighty river of
the prehistoric periods.
UP IN THE CLOUDS.
At an altitude of 10000 feet grass
covered plateau half mile wide was
crossed and then the party turned into
cafion that apparently seemed impas-
sable, but thread-like trail wound in
and out of the rugged and forbidding
mountain sides, always stretching up
ward toward the clouds. After several
hours OF very slow but steady climbing
rocky peak was reached beyond which
lowered the sunny tops of Gray back,
Mount San Bernardino and other peaks
OF the higher range. As the party pro-
ceeded up the cafion, the masses of
snow along the sides and in the old tor
rent bed became more frequent, and at
many points it had drifted
into great banks, twenty, thirty and
fifty feet in depth, judging from the
tops of great pine trees that projected
therefrom. Upon reaching the elevation
of 10, 900 feet, members of the party were
affected with what is known as noun
tain sickness, an indescribable feeling
of illness, bleeding at the nose, lassitude,
depression, difficulty in breathing, at
tributable to the diminished air pres
sure. or. as it is termed, to the rarefca-
ton OF the air. From this point it was
decided to make the remainder of the
journey to the summit-to the region OF
ice and snow-on foot, as, owing to the
precipitous aud rocky nature of the
mountain side, it would be hazardous to
urge the animals farther, and one of the
mustangs being afflicted with profuse
nasal hemorrhage, was sent to lower
level.
SNOW DRIFT PLUNGER.
After brief rest, the ascent of the
mountain began in earnest. A stretch
of table land half mile in. width.
sparsely covered with timber, and piled
high with gigantic masses of granite,
was crossed with considerable difficulty
and wary eye ever watchful against be-
ing engulfed in some one of the deep
snow drifts that abounded here in great
profusion. Despite all precautions,
at the upper end OF the plateau one of
the party incautiously stepped on the
verge of snow drift and plunged down
momentarily out of sight, and was
hauled out by grasping one end of an
alpenstock. AS the ascent con-
tinued, the physical strain, difficulty of
breathing increased and frequentstops
for rest became imperative. The timber
was fast becoming sparser and the trees
were mostly stunted and dwarfed in
growth, while the snow covered nearly
the entire surface and shone with daz-
cling brightness. At $4,000 feet the
timber line was reached. Here pine and
tamarac. trees were found with trunks
measuring ~ feet in diameter and not
more than 8 feet high, their growth
apparently cut off as if with some great
invisible ecythe as they reached their
heads toward the timber line. A few
feet higher diminutive pine trees, per-
feet in foliage and structural formation,
but not over eight or ten inches high
were discerned. The ascent was now up
q steep incline, and on either eide were
great ravines, or gulches in the noun
tain eide that extended upwards for
hundreds of feet to points near the
summit. The climb was over small
boulders that rolled downward from
under the feet.
THREE GLACIAL FEEDERS.
Three ravines, oblong in shape, half a
mile in length and about an eighth of a
mile in width were filed full of snow.
The ravines ran into q cation that wound
spirally downward trending in south
erly direction.
Although these great assures in many
respects resemble the heads OF
glaciers, etill they were not OF sufficient
dimensions to indicate permanent ex-
istence, and the party followed the
trend OF these ravines in southerly di-
rection, and crossing a ridge projecting
from the main body of the mountain,
fully 1000 feet, they came to the main
or mother gorge, which extended from
| the summit downward for fully two and
a quarter miles. This gorge was wedge
shaped, much like an immense V,re.
versed-thus A.. 1t was fully an eighth
of mile in width at the summit, and
gradually widened to three-quarters of q
mile at the base.
The snow at the crest of the gorge at
the top of the mountain lay in strata,
there being one deposit in an immense
cup-like fissure, hundreds OF feet in
depth. On one side of this fssure the
strata are sharply defined, the strata each
representing the accumulation OF sim
Gle year. the lowest and most dense ap.
] preaching the blue color of ice. About
half mile downward from the summit
the three gorges heretofore described al
| containing immense deposits of snow,
center in one common channel and de-
bouch into the main gorge. At the
point OF juncture there were fragment.
ary indications of median moraine
indicating that at some long-past perioc
the smaller channel had been ar
active glacier. Both sides of the mRir
gorge were observed closely, and thu
Investigation revealed the existence o
lateral moraines formed of earthly mat
/ ter and detritus which had been de
tached from the mountain sides ani
fallen upon the surface of the moving
snow and ice. Before proceeding dowr
the ridge to the base OF the presumed
glacier it was decided to make the ascen
to the highest poinS of the mountain
and take the altitude with an aneroit
barometer. On reaching this point th'
instrument indicated an elevation o