R. Clay Ramey

11/15/99

Eng444

Clarence King was renown for his mountaineering escapades in the late 19th century in the vastness America's western third. His primary area of expertise being the Sierra Nevada range which rises westward of the Rockies and east, to the state of California, extending from Mexico into Alaska. King first scaled the heights of the Sierras on a volunteer basis with his mentors, Professors William H. Brewer and Josiah Whitney. Both were members of the fledgling California State Geologic Survey, which was later replaced by the United States Geologic Survey, of which King became the first director.

Mountaineering recounts a number of expeditions in which King and company often masochistically withstood brutal weather and other hardships resulting from their positioning themselves in some of the highest altitudes in this part of the world. These missions were of scientific purposes; their goal being to document and theorize about the nature, structure, orientation and origin of the Sierras. King excels in his vivid descriptions of the locales he finds himself in. He recounts the physical and structural composition of his rugged views with the detail and intricacy of a formally trained geologist. He does also however, describe his surroundings with the sentimentality of the most romantic of Romantics, displaying his attributes as not only a student of geology, but a lover of nature.

This book also documents King's ill-fated attempt to scale Mt. Whitney, which had previously been named after his mentor of the same surname. Unfortunately for King, the area was emerged in heavy cloud cover which allowed him to scale a towering peak, that however challenging, was not the summit of the mountain. King, thinking he had indeed found the spire, descended, only to have his actual location pointed out to him later on, when it was noticed that he indeed had not climbed the summit, but a pinnacle of lessor elevation. This was naturally, a great disappointment and embarrassment to King.

Throughout King's expeditions, we see that he nearly constantly surrounded by peril. A biographer of King's, Harry Crosby, said that "King demonstrated an 'infatuation with danger'" throughout his life1. If it be not in the form of treacherous climbs, frightful weather or temperamental, one-eyed mules, it is from the inhabitants of the wild lands which he finds himself in. In one instance, we find King alone but for his horse, being pursued by a brace of bloodthirsty Mexicans intent on gaining possession of his gold. The tale illustrates King's renowned ability to tell a good story, not sparing a little embellishment. The tale of these "greasers" also brings to light King's flagrant racism. This sentiment is repeated in one of his "confessions" that "the Quakers will have to work a great reformation in the Indian before he is … fit to be exterminated" (60). Not all of the people King encounters are of such ill motivation as the Mexicans, a primary example bei! ng a family of porcine herders King finds in the mountains. Although King is not knowledgeable in the field of pig farming, his ability to read his audience allows him to convey to these simple people his "good will toward pork generically", as an expression of civility and interest (117).

All in all, this book is an entertaining read for those individuals who enjoy and appreciate wild lands, as did the peculiar Mr. King. His accounts of the Sierras as well as his often-harrowing adventures along the trail provide the appreciative reader with fantastic pictures of the topography itself as well as those who choose to inhabit it.