In the afternoon of the second day, the travellers attained one of the elevated valleyslocked up in this singular bed of mountains. Here were two bright and beautiful littlelakes, set like mirrors in the midst of stern and rocky heights, and surrounded by grassymeadows, inexpressibly refreshing to the eye. These probably were among the sourcesof those mighty streams which take their rise among these mountains, and wanderhundreds of miles through the plains.
In the green pastures bordering upon these lakes, the travellers halted to repose, andto give their weary horses time to crop the sweet and tender herbage. They had nowascended to a great height above the level of the plains, yet they beheld huge crags ofgranite piled one upon another, and beetling like battlements far above them. Whiletwo of the men remained in the camp with the horses, Captain Bonneville,accompanied by the other men [man], set out to climb a neighboring height, hoping togain a commanding prospect, and discern some practicable route through thisstupendous labyrinth. After much toil, he reached the summit of a lofty cliff, but it wasonly to behold gigantic peaks rising all around, and towering far into the snowy regionsof the atmosphere. Selecting one which appeared to be the highest, he crossed anarrow intervening valley, and began to scale it. He soon found that he had undertakena tremendous task; but the pride of man is never more obstinate than when climbingmountains. The ascent was so steep and rugged that he and his companion werefrequently obliged to clamber on hands and knees, with their guns slung upon theirbacks. Frequently, exhausted with fatigue, and dripping with perspiration, they threwthemselves upon the snow, and took handfuls of it to allay their parching thirst. At oneplace, they even stripped off their coats and hung them upon the bushes, and thuslightly clad, proceeded to scramble over these eternal snows. As they ascended stillhigher, there were cool breezes that refreshed and braced them, and springing withnew ardor to their task, they at length attained the summit.
Here a scene burst upon the view of Captain Bonneville, that for a time astonished andoverwhelmed him with its immensity. He stood, in fact, upon that dividing ridge whichIndians regard as the crest of the world; and on each side of which, the landscape maybe said to decline to the two cardinal oceans of the globe. Whichever way he turned hiseye, it was confounded by the vastness and variety of objects. Beneath him, the RockyMountains seemed to open all their secret recesses: deep, solemn valleys; treasuredlakes; dreary passes; rugged defiles, and foaming torrents; while beyond their savageprecincts, the eye was lost in an almost immeasurable landscape; stretching on everyside into dim and hazy distance, like the expanse of a summer's sea. Whichever wayhe looked, he beheld vast plains glimmering with reflected sunshine; mighty streamswandering on their shining course toward either ocean, and snowy mountains, chainbeyond chain, and peak beyond peak, till they melted like clouds into the horizon. For atime, the Indian fable seemed realized: he had attained that height from which theBlackfoot warrior, after death, first catches a view of the land of souls, and beholds thehappy hunting grounds spread out below him, brightening with the abodes of the freeand generous spirits. The captain stood for a long while gazing upon this scene, lost ina crowd of vague and indefinite ideas and sensations. A long-drawn inspiration atlength relieved him from this enthralment of the mind, and he began to analyze theparts of this vast panorama. A simple enumeration of a few of its features may givesome idea of its collective grandeur and magnificence.
