Up James' Peak [pp. 411-414]

UP _'AM4
air is very rare at this hleight, and makes serious stork of climbing, but we were a jolly party,
and could well afford to spend a few moments
now and then resting and talking. About three
o'clock we gained the summit. Althlough the
side we climbed was easy of ascent, and not
remarkably steep. when we stood upon the narrow, level line of the top we looked immediately
clown upon a perpendicular wall of rock that
here and there descended abruptly a hundred
or more feet, then became broken by yawning, uinder-reacliing chasms, fearfully jagged
and terrible, then shelves of rocks, and a leap
of hundreds of feet into the beautiful valley
below; for right beneath our feet stretched out
the Middle Park, withl its winding, wooded
streams, its gemmy lakes, its grassy hills, and
smooth, level tracts of greensward(l, clumps of
evergreen trees, groves of quivering aspens,
mile upon mile of unceasing beauty and
changleful variety, never the same. but always
smooth, rolling, lovely, as if planned and
planted ages ago for the pleasutre-ground of
some gentleman giant, where he might ride,
hunIt, fish, hawk at his own sweet will, with
always plenty of room for the display of his
skill and prowess. Almost within a stone'sthrow, across a deep gorge at our left, rose
another mighty peakl, the solid, barren rock of
awhichl was seamed, and scarred, and furrowed
as if relentless Nature, avenging her agony, had
vented her spleen upon it, rending and tearing
its surface, and splitting stupendous slices from
top to bottom of its rugged side. It is something terrible to stand upon one of these pinnacles of rock and mark the devastation and
desolation the angry elements have made, how
in their mad frolics they have stirred the world
into a fiery, volcanic chlaos, a chaos that should
roll and tumble its sulphluric billows in feverishl unrest, that ages later they mighlt freeze
and petrify into these invincible, hoary-hleaded
mountains; and I, a waif upon the backbone
of the continent, stood speculating on these
mighty mysteries, with no one to help my
understanding, awhile these mute granite giants
stood all about me in dumb, stony silence, that
might tell so much of hideous riot and change
in the long ago. May be in the valley there
palms rustled, and gorgeous-plumaged birds
floated on the soft, voluptuous air, tropical
fiat;ts and flowers made the atmosphere heavy
with fragrance, and the tinkling waves of the
Summer sea washed the rosy shells on the
w hite beach; even noxv the park, with its
charmed and gorgeous Summer, laughs up intoxicatingly in the face of the Winter that
reigns above, for all around and about this
rS' PEA<. 4.
Eden is barricaded by gigantic mountains.
Snow-slashled, storm-beaten, tier upon tier of
"Snowy Range" rise and retreat, far as the
eye can reach, upon all sides but the east.
From here wve could plainly see Gray's PIeak,
Lincoln's Peak, and a dozen others of equal
notoriety. Crowding off towvard the gloxving
west, they loomed in peaks and spurs, lwhite
with snow or gray with rocks, till far in the
distance they were like piles of cumuli in a
Summer sky. Behind us, over and over the
dark evergreen hills, the plains spread out far
and wide, level and blue, like a vast, immeasurable sea. Dr. Tolles had a very superior fieldglass that very much enhanced the pleasure of
the view.
Standing on an overhanging cliff, I dislodged
a rock, and sent it whirling dclown the precipice:
with crashing force it struck upon a shelf of
rock a hundred feet belovw, then, bounding from
this with a report like the dischlarge of a rifle,
it leaped across a chasm that gashed the mountain to its base, then it rattled down the ragged
wall, dislodging other rocks, and carrying with
it a shower of stones, dust, and gravel, banging, crashing, raising a thousand echoes, and
giving a sound like the discharge of a small
battery, till, with all its accompanying cloud of
flying rocks and matter, it fell into the peaceful
valley, and buried itself in the depths of a little
green lake, hundreds and hundreds of feet below; but for full five minutes afterward rocks
and stones were rattling down the mountainside.
All over the summit grew beautiful little
flowsers, some of a delicate turquois blue, others
pale rose and yellow. The higher you go here
the more lovely are the floxwers. I can not tell
the exact height of James' Peak. for explorers
differ so in their figures. It is probably more
than I3,oo000 feet above sea level, and it is certain that you get fi-omi its summit a mnuchl
finer, and wider-extendel view, than from many
peaks that are much higher. But the sun was
getting low, the breeze grew cool: we turned
and retraced our steps down the mountain; the
thawing snow, as well as numerous sprilngs,
made a net-work of tiny, crystal streams, all
over the mountain-side: now and then wxce
slaked our thirst at some little rocky, mossencircled reservoir of cool, clear Grater. In lue
time awe reached the horses, mounted, and began the march back over the chilly meadow,
among the hills, the storm-riven firs, across the
stream, and to camp at last: found the wagon
all right, sat down to a cold collation, very
acceptable after the tramp, and, just as the long,
level lines of light dyed with crimson and gold
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