gregious
boulder would, it seemed to me, naturally be called the last; Karstens
thought not--thought the "last boulder" was the last _on_ the ridge. As
we learned later, Karstens was right, and since he yielded to me we did
not find the thermometer, for, having descended to this isolated rock,
we would not climb up again for fifty thermometers. One's disappointment
is qualified by the knowledge that the thermometer is probably not of
adequate scale, Professor Parker's recollection being that it read only
to 60 deg. below zero, F. A lower temperature than this is recorded every
winter on the Yukon River.

[Sidenote: Possible Temperatures]

A thermometer reading to 100 deg. below zero, left at this spot, would,
in my judgment, perhaps yield a lower minimum than has ever yet been
authentically recorded on earth, and it is most unfortunate that the
opportunity was lost. Yet I did not leave my own alcohol minimum--scaled
to 95 deg. below zero, and yielding, by estimation, perhaps ten degrees
below the scaling--there, because of the difficulty of giving explicit
directions that should lead to its ready recovery, and at the close of
such a day of toil as is involved in reaching the summit, men have no
stomach for prolonged search. As will be told, it is cached lower down,
but at a spot where it cannot be missed.

However, for one, the writer was largely unconscious of weariness in
that descent. All the way down, my thoughts were occupied with the
glorious scene my eyes had gazed upon and should gaze upon never again.
In all human probability I would never climb that mountain again; yet if
I climbed it a score more times I would never be likely to repeat such
vision. Commonly, only for a few hours at a time, never for more than a
few days at a time, save in the dead of winter when climbing is out of
the question, does Denali completely unveil himself and dismiss the
clouds from all the earth beneath him. Not for long, with these lofty
colds contiguous, will the vapors of Cook's Inlet and Prince William
Sound and the whole North Pacific Ocean refrain from sweeping upward;
their natural trend is hitherward. As the needle turns to the magnet so
the clouds find an irresistible attraction in this great mountain mass,
and though the inner side of the range be rid of them the sea side is
commonly filled to overflowing.

[Sidenote: The Te Deum]

Only those who have for long years cherished a great and almost
inordinate desire, an