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458 WESTERN WILDS. s, tion of log and frame cabins, built years ago by the Sonora Mining Company, and now kept as a hotel by Mrs. Z. M. Lane and Sou. There are bedding and accommodation for fifteen persons, including first- class fare, warm rooms, library and material for parlor amuse-ments. The cabin is just below the timber line, in the last grove, though a very gentle slope of mountain meadow, rich with grass and flowers, extends a mile and a half beyond, to the foot of the range. The timber line is every- where at about the same elevation, whether in the tropics or far north ; and by this token we know that Kelso's cabin is about 11,000 feet high. Nothing can be grown for the use of man, but the grass on all the slopes is exceedingly rank and nutritious. About four months in the year the climate is delightful; then comes a week or two of severe storms, one of which caught us, and after that a month of Indian summer, whose glories are unsurpassed by any thing in New England. The grass retains its nourishing qualities until the snow is too deep for the cattle to paw it away in feeding ; but in May, though the old grass is apparently just the same, the melting snow seems to have taken all the sweetness out of it. Back of the cabin ( westward) rises Kelso Mountain, perhaps fifteen hundred feet above the creek, containing several valuable mines; east of it the almost perpendicular McClellan range puts out north- east from the summit. Along its ragged and forbidding sides are the Vesper, Stevens, and several other very rich silver lodes, their value greatly lessened by the difficulty of reaching and working them. The storm continued five hours; then a council of weather was called, and decided it would be clear by midnight. Captain Lane was to rise at 2 A. M., and, if the sky looked favorable, all were to get up and make the ascent in time to witness sunrise from the Peak. He found the mercury at that hour only five degrees above zero, with a sharp wind and penetrating frost; and decided, in his own mind, that " these tender buds of the valley could never endure such a trip," and let us slumber on till daylight. Every body awoke hungry, and de-clared the almanac mistaken ; it was Christmas instead of September 3d, and we must have a Christmas breakfast. Mrs. Lane did the oc-casion justice, especially in the item of cream from cattle that only yesterday morning grazed on bunch- grass, now buried under six inches of snow, and raspberries picked from the hill- sides below the cabin. But summer luxuries were nowhere. Hot coifee, hot steaks, dough-nuts, and griddle- cakes led the demand. We started on the ascent at 7, with Captain Lane for a guide. There was not a cloud in the sky, and the bright sunshine was just |
