Note 4 — Chapter XIX · ASCENT OF SIPAN

Our slender parapet ends in its steep and talus-strewn side, which we commence to scale. We step from block to block, the boulders consisting of a light brown lava, which has broken up with sharp angles. There can be no doubt that this mass is the latest result of eruptive action upon the summit of Sipan. The whole or nearly the whole of the eastern portion of the crater was blown away, and this cone raised upon its ruins. It is almost circular in shape. The level parts of the platform, upon which we emerge from the rocky slopes, are covered with snow and ice; but the cairns, of which there are too many to count, protrude from the white canopy with little beaches of brown rock. It is hard to tell at a first glance which is the highest of these piles. Our Circassian conducts us to one among them on the north of the mass, which, indeed, is the most elevated of all. When we have clambered to the summit, we are amazed to find a screen, rudely erected from the boulders by a human hand. It provides us with just the shelter which we shall require for our observations upon the following day. We have reached an altitude of 13,700 feet.4