it was lost in the distance; after fearful leaps
we could only detect it by the flashings of snow where it struck, and as
these were in some instances three hundred feet apart, we decided not to
launch our own valuable bodies, and the still more precious barometer,
after it.

There seemed but one possible way to reach our goal; that was to make
our way along the summit of the cross ridge which projected between the
two ranges. This divide sprang out from our Mount Brewer wall, about
four miles to the south of us. To reach it we must climb up and down
over the indented edge of the Mount Brewer wall. In attempting to do
this we had a rather lively time scaling a sharp granite needle, where
we found our course completely stopped by precipices four and five
hundred feet in height. Ahead of us the summit continued to be broken
into fantastic pinnacles, leaving us no hope of making our way along it;
so we sought the most broken part of the eastern descent, and began to
climb down. The heavy knapsacks, besides wearing our shoulders gradually
into a black-and-blue state, overbalanced us terribly, and kept us in
constant danger of pitching headlong. At last, taking them off, Cotter
climbed down until he found a resting-place upon a cleft of rock, then I
lowered them to him with our lasso, afterwards descending cautiously to
his side, taking my turn in pioneering downward, receiving the freight
of knapsacks as before. In this manner we consumed more that half the
afternoon in descending a thousand feet of broken, precipitous slope;
and it was almost sunset when we found ourselves upon fields of level
snow which lay white and thick over the whole interior slope of the
amphitheatre. The gorge below us seemed utterly impassable. At our backs
the Mount Brewer wall either rose in sheer cliffs or in broken, rugged
stairway, such as had offered us our descent. From this cruel dilemma
the cross divide furnished the only hope, and the sole chance of scaling
that was at its junction with the Mount Brewer wall. Toward this point
we directed our course, marching wearily over stretches of dense frozen
snow, and regions of debris, reaching about sunset the last alcove of
the amphitheatre, just at the foot of the Mount Brewer wall. It was
evidently impossible for us to attempt to climb it that evening, and we
looked about the desolate recesses for a sheltered camping-spot. A high
granite wall surrounded us upon three sides, recurring to the sou