Seeing no way of getting on or along the glacier, except with the greatest labor, Lockwood proposed to Brainard that they should ascend the cliffs and get an outlook from the top. It did not seem very far to the crest, and accordingly they started, but a more severe climb they had never had, and hoped never to have again. It was a very steep incline of rocks and snow all the way up. When the barometer showed an elevation of twenty-five hundred feet, Lockwood found himself on a ledge of rocks from which he could get neither up nor down for some time. Beneath him was a steep surface of frozen snow, falling on which he would have gone down-hill like an avalanche. Brainard had inclined more to the left, and, by following the side of a steep gully full of ice, had got ahead of him and out of sight. Finally, Lockwood reached what had long seemed the summit, and stopped to rest. Presently Brainard came in sight, and said the top was about a mile off. They then started together, walked over a gradually ascending surface like the top of a vast dome, covered with hard frozen snow and ice, and very smooth and slippery, giving them frequent falls, and at 4 A. M. reached the summit and viewed the country around for many miles. Being cold, they did not stay long—only long enough to take bearings by compass of several distant mountains to the south, snow and ice-clad peaks with many glaciers between. To the west the country was less broken, and seemingly was a lofty surface of snow and ice. They traced the glacier near their camp about twenty miles toward the west-south-west, when it, and the valley containing it, came to an end in a high mountain-ridge. This wonderful feature of nature possessed great interest for Lockwood. The face of the barometer gave an elevation of the mountain or cliff on which they stood of 5,050 feet above the sea-level. As their tent was only three hundred feet above tide-water, their climb had not been a small one. They descended the mountain readily, although they had to use hands as well as feet all the way down, in some places carrying with them a land-slide of earth and stones. They were constantly deceived as to distances and heights. A headland on the fiord looked but a half-hour’s travel away, yet it took two or three hours to reach it. So these cliffs, which looked from below like an easy climb, proved the highest and steepest in that benighted region. They got back to the tent after thirteen hours of as hard work as they had yet experienced, and completely tired out. They took meridian observation for latitude, and then enjoyed a hearty meal of ptarmigan killed by Frederick during their absence.