o 'em."

I took the Parson's tip and next day packed a horse and started for
Arapahoe glacier which lies south of Long's Peak. On the second day
out, having taken my pack-horse as far up as possible, I unpacked him,
hobbled him and turned him loose to crop what grass he could find.
Then I set up camp.

Camp made, I began the last lap of my climb up the glacier. Along the
way, below snowbanks, wild flowers grew head-high, but in the woods
beside the game trails they were scarce and stunted. As I plodded
slowly up the steep slope I heard loud reports, as though some one were
setting off heavy blasts. They echoed and reechoed among the cliffs.
A roaring stream dashed frothily down the slope, rocks rolled past. I
climbed a pinnacle overlooking the glacier and looked down upon it.

The Parson was right. All the snow which ordinarily hid the icy
surface was melted away. The glacial ice lay uncovered. Its surface
was split by numberless yawning crevasses. Water drenched their sides.
Every little while ice would break away, and then reports, similar to
the ones I had heard on my way up, would nearly deafen me.

I climbed gingerly down and edged out upon the glacier, testing each
foothold. I peeped into the crevasses, and dropped stones or chunks of
ice into them to sound their depths. I ventured into a shallow crack
and followed it until it pinched beneath a wall of solid ice. Then I
tried another, a larger one. Gaining a little courage by these
explorations, I ventured yet farther and climbed down into one of the
deeper crevasses. Water showered down upon me, from melting walls
above. I crept on down until I was about fifty feet below the top of
the glacier. I paused; before me gaped a dark cavern fenced off by
heavy icicles as large as my body. I peered through this crystal
lattice into the darkness beyond. From somewhere came the tinkle of
water, I decided to investigate. A stream pouring into the crevasse
from above, had washed down a stone. Using it for a sledge, I set to
work to break into that barred vault. I shattered one of the glassy
bars and crawled inside. A ghostly blue light filled the place. With
lighted candle I moved away from the entrance, turned a corner and
plunged into the blackest darkness I have ever experienced.

The silence was eerie, frightening. Just then it was shattered by a
muffled report, followed almost at once by another that seemed to rend
my cavern walls asunder.