noon
No snow fell that morning , and as their packs were ominously light they made good speed across the hill benches and down a ravine where they scrambled among the boulders of a frozen creek . It was a grey day without the rise in temperature that often accompanies cloudiness , and the light was strangely dim . Rocks and pines melted into one another at a short distance , and leaden haze obscured the lower valley . Blake was , however , becoming sure it was the one they had travelled up and , dispensing with the usual noon halt , they pushed on as fast as possible . All were anxious to set their doubts at rest , for there was now a prospect of obtaining food and shelter in a few days , but they recognized no landmarks , and with the approach of evening the frost grew very keen . The haze drew in closer , the scattered pines they passed wailed drearily in a rising wind , and the men were tired , but they could see no suitable camping place and held on , looking for thicker timber . It was getting dark when a belt of trees stretched across the valley , and they were thinking of stopping , when Benson , who led the way , cried out .