rtunately we there found a number
of springs, and succeeded in killing two buffaloes.

Still untaught by experience, we foolishly left our blankets and all
other than a pocketful of provision at our bivouac, and set off up the
mountain at dawn, assured that we could reach the top by noon and
descend again by nightfall. Almost at the start I brought down a deer of
a species unknown to us, it being larger than the ordinary animal, and
its ears much like those of a mule. The carcass was flayed without
delay, and the skin hung well up in a pitch-pine, together with the
saddle.

Made impatient by the delay, we began our climb with a will, determined
to reach the summit even earlier than we had planned. In this, however,
we were to be most sadly disappointed. After clambering up the steep
slopes and precipices all day without arriving at the crest, we were
forced to take refuge for the night in a cave. While preparing to creep
into this cheerless shelter, our discomfort over the utter lack of
blankets, food, and water was for the moment forgotten in the curious
sensation of standing under a clear sky and gazing at a snowstorm far
below us down the mountain.

Morning found us half famished with thirst and hunger and bruised by our
rocky beds, but we needed no urging to resume our laborious ascent. The
view from our lofty mountain side was the grandest I had ever seen.
Above us arched the translucent sky in an illimitable dome of purest
sapphire, rimmed before our upturned eyes by gaunt, jagged rocks and
fields of dazzling snow. Behind and below us the vast desert of prairies
stretched away to east and north and south, far beyond the reach of
human eye, its tawny surface closely overhung by a sea of billowy white
clouds. Far to the south, at least a hundred miles distant, we noted in
particular a vast double, or twin, peak, which stood out from and
overtopped the heights of the front range even as our Grand Peak dwarfed
its neighbors.

But we did not linger long to gaze at this sublime prospect. Though our
thermometer here registered well below zero, we struggled on upward
through the waist-deep snow to the first of the summits which rose
before us. An hour found us close upon what we took to be the goal of
our efforts.

At last, panting from our exertions and the rarity of the air, we
floundered up the final rise to the crest. In this wild, scrambling rush
Brown dropped to the rear, while the Lieutenant, though physicall