Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 September 1893 — Sublimity of Pike's Peak. [ARTICLE]

Sublimity of Pike's Peak.

One of the sublimest effects in nature is occasionally seen by those who climb the tall and isolated peaks of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. The dryness of the air and the strong heat of the afternoon sun cause a rapid evaporation from the brooks, springs and snowbanks on the mountain sides, and this moisture, rising on the warmer air, condenses as it reaches the cooler, thinner atmosphere about the mountain top. The traveler, says the New York Sun, looking down, sees clouds literally forming below him and growing thick and black every instant, so that as they reach his level they roll skyward and in huge masses of vapor they eclipse the view and bury him in darkness. Lightning occasionally leaps from the clouds, and a mountain top is a particularly had place to be in at such a time. The stone signal service station on Pike’s Peak has been nearly wracked by lightning more thaa once.