Irondale surpassed all my expectations. Strange squatty buildings and immense brickworks set in among huge bulky bluffs, some bare, others crowded, others with raw yellow gashes, & all of them crowded with stark dead trees.
    Planning to sleep out, I pushed on to find a convenient hill. Finally sighting a First I sought water, & found it at a miner’s well, - dear cold water that put new life into me. As I went on I finally sighted a huge bare “hog-back” which I made my goal; an ambitious one I later found out. Concealing my wheel in some bushes at its base I took my luggage & set out to climb the “Mountain,” I perhaps never engaged[written enaged] a more difficult task and perhaps if I had known what was in store for me I might have lost my nerve; the Whole lower half of the hill, or as I thought, was covered with vines, briars, & fallen limbs & tree trunks – A brief trial to right & left convinced me it was all alike so I went straight forward; and encumbered as I was with my heavy luggage, I had a sorry time of it