my way rapidly.  Our cautious method of advancing in the outset had spared my strength; and, with the exception of a slight disposition to headache, I felt no remains of yesterday’s illness.  In a few minutes we reached a point where the buttress was overhanging, and there was no other way of surmounting the difficulty than by passing around one side of it, which was the face of a vertical precipice of several hundred feet.’

“Parfleche is the name given to buffalo hide.  The Indian women prepare it by scraping and drying.  It is exceedingly tough and hard, and receives its name from the circumstance that it cannot be pierced by arrows or spears.  The entire dress of Fremont and his party, on their ascent to the ‘top of America,’ consisted of a blue flannel shirt, free and open at the neck, the collar turning down over a black silk handkerchief tied loosely, blue cloth pantaloons, a slouched broad-brimmed hat, and moccasins as above described.  It was well adapted to climbing—­quite light, and at the same time warm, and every way comfortable.

“’Putting hands and feet in the crevices between the blocks, I succeeded in getting over it, and, when I reached the top, found my companions in a small valley below.  Descending to them, we continued climbing, and in a short time reached the crest.  I sprang upon the summit, and another step would have precipitated me into an immense snow-field five hundred feet below.  To the edge of this field was a sheer icy precipice; and then, with a gradual fall, the field sloped off for about a mile, until it struck the foot of another lower ridge.  I stood on a narrow crest, about three feet in width, with an inclination of about 20 deg.  N. 51 deg.  E. As soon as I had gratified the first feelings of curiosity, I descended, and each man ascended in his turn, for I would only allow one at a time to mount the unstable and precarious slab, which it seemed a breath would hurl into the abyss below.  We mounted the barometer in the snow of the summit, and, fixing a ramrod in a crevice, unfurled the national flag, to wave in the breeze where never flag waved before.  During our morning’s ascent, we met no sign of animal life, except a small bird having the appearance of a sparrow.  A stillness the most profound and a terrible solitude forced themselves constantly on the mind as the great features of the place.  Here, on the summit, where the stillness was absolute, unbroken by any sound, and the solitude complete, we thought ourselves beyond the region of animated life; but while we were sitting on the rock, a solitary bee (bombus terrestris, the humble bee) came winging his flight from the eastern valley, and lit on the knee of one of the men.