Night drew near before I reached the eastern base of the mountain, and my camp lay many a rugged mile to the north; but ultimate success was assured.  It was now only a matter of endurance and ordinary mountain-craft.  The sunset was, if possible, yet more beautiful than that of the day before.  The Mono landscape seemed to be fairly saturated with warm, purple light.  The peaks marshaled along the summit were in shadow, but through every notch and pass streamed vivid sun-fire, soothing and irradiating their rough, black angles, while companies of small, luminous clouds hovered above them like very angels of light.

Darkness came on, but I found my way by the trends of the canons and the peaks projected against the sky.  All excitement died with the light, and then I was weary.  But the joyful sound of the waterfall across the lake was heard at last, and soon the stars were seen reflected in the lake itself.  Taking my bearings from these, I discovered the little pine thicket in which my nest was, and then I had a rest such as only a tired mountaineer may enjoy.  After lying loose and lost for awhile, I made a sunrise fire, went down to the lake, dashed water on my head, and dipped a cupful for tea.  The revival brought about by bread and tea was as complete as the exhaustion from excessive enjoyment and toil.  Then I crept beneath the pine-tassels to bed.  The wind was frosty and the fire burned low, but my sleep was none the less sound, and the evening constellations had swept far to the west before I awoke.

After thawing and resting in the morning sunshine, I sauntered home,—­that is, back to the Tuolumne camp,—­bearing away toward a cluster of peaks that hold the fountain snows of one of the north tributaries of Rush Creek.  Here I discovered a group of beautiful glacier lakes, nestled together in a grand amphitheater.  Toward evening, I crossed the divide separating the Mono waters from those of the Tuolumne, and entered the glacier basin that now holds the fountain snows of the stream that forms the upper Tuolumne cascades.  This stream I traced down through its many dells and gorges, meadows and bogs, reaching the brink of the main Tuolumne at dusk.

A loud whoop for the artists was answered again and again.  Their camp-fire came in sight, and half an hour afterward I was with them.  They seemed unreasonably glad to see me.  I had been absent only three days; nevertheless, though the weather was fine, they had already been weighing chances as to whether I would ever return, and trying to decide whether they should wait longer or begin to seek their way back to the lowlands.  Now their curious troubles were over.  They packed their precious sketches, and next morning we set out homeward bound, and in two days entered the Yosemite Valley from the north by way of Indian Canon.

CHAPTER V

THE PASSES

The sustained grandeur of the High Sierra is strikingly illustrated by the great height of the passes.  Between latitude 36 deg. 20’ and 38 deg. the lowest pass, gap, gorge, or notch of any kind cutting across the axis of the range, as far as I have discovered, exceeds 9000 feet in height above the level of the sea; while the average height of all that are in use, either by Indians or whites, is perhaps not less than 11,000 feet, and not one of these is a carriage-pass.