The fourth of July was spent by us in cutting a trail up the steep mountain slope to the amphitheatre visited during my first tramp. No one can appreciate the density and luxuriance of the vegetation on the lower mountain in that region until he has cut a passage through it. Seven men, working continuously for six or seven hours with axes and knives, were able to open a comparatively good trail about a mile in length. The remainder of the way was along stream courses and up bowlder-washes, which were free from vegetation. In the afternoon, having finished our task, a half-holiday was spent in an exciting search for two huge brown bears discovered by one of the party, but they vanished before the guns could be brought out.
The next day an advance-camp was made in the amphitheatre above timber line, and there Mr. Kerr and myself passed the night, molested only by swarms of mosquitoes, and the day following occupied an outstanding butte as a topographical station. In the afternoon of the same day the advance-camp was moved to the border of the Atrevida glacier at a point already described, where a muddy stream gushes out from under the ice.
Our next advance-camp, established a few days later, was at Terrace point, as we called the extreme end of the mountain spur separating the Lucia and Atrevida glaciers. These ice-streams were formerly much higher than now, and when at their flood formed terraces along the mountain side, which remain distinctly visible to the present day. The space between the two glaciers at the southern end of the mountain spur became filled with bowlders and stones carried down on the side of the ice-streams, and, as the glaciers contracted, added a tapering point to the mountain. Between the present surface of the ice and the highest terrace left at some former time there are many ridges, sloping down stream, which record minor changes in the fluctuation of the ice. A portion of one of these terraces is seen to the left in plate 10.
Terrace point, like all the lower portions of the mountain spurs extending southward from the main range, is densely clothed with vegetation, and during the short summers is a paradise of flowers. Our tent was pitched on a low terrace just beyond the border of the ice. The steep bluff rising to an elevation of some 200 feet on the east of our camp was formed by glacial ice buried beneath an absolutely barren covering of stones and dirt. On the west the ascent was still more precipitous, but the slope from base to summit was one mass of gorgeous flowers.
Kerr and myself made several excursions from the camp at Terrace point, and explored the country ahead to the next mountain spur for the purpose of selecting a site for another advance-camp. In the meantime the men were busy in bringing up supplies.