We will make the ascent and stand on the summit of Pyramid Peak.

This is now 10,020 feet above sea level, rising almost sheer above Desolation Valley immediately at our feet.
The first thing that arrests the visitor's attention is the peculiar shape of the peak upon which he stands, and of the whole of the Crystal Range.

Both east and west it is a great precipice, with a razor-like edge, which seems to have been especially designed for the purpose of arresting the clouds and snow blown over the mountain, ranges of the High Sierras, and preventing their contents falling upon the waste and thirsty, almost desert-areas of western Nevada, which lie a few miles further east.
Whence do the rains and snow-storms come?
One hundred and fifty miles, a trifle more or less, to the westward is the vast bosom of the Pacific Ocean.

Its warm current is constantly kissed by the fervid sun and its water allured, in the shape of mist and fog, to ascend into the heavens above.

Here it is gently wafted by the steady ocean breezes over the land to the east.