The Discovery of Yellowstone Park: Journal of the Washburn Expedition to the Yellowstone and Firehole Rivers in the Year 1870Langford, Nathaniel Pitt
History
The Discovery of Yellowstone Park: Journal of the Washburn Expedition to the Yellowstone and Firehole Rivers in the Year 1870
Langford, Nathaniel Pitt
Langford, Nathaniel Pitt, 1832-1911 -- Diaries; Yellowstone National Park -- Discovery and exploration
"Washburn and Langford * * * became entangled in an immense swampy
brimstone basin, abounding in sulphur springs. * * * Mr. Langford's
horse broke through several times, coming back plastered with the white
substance and badly scalded."]
[Footnote U: The location of this camp is what is now called the "Thumb"
station on the stage route.]
[Footnote V: Analyses of the various specimens of mud taken from the
springs in this locality, made on our return to Helena, gave the
following results:
White Sediment. Lavender Sediment. Pink Sediment.
Silica......... 42.2 Silica ........ 28.2 Silica ........ 32.6
Magnesia....... 33.4 Alumina........ 58.6 Alumina........ 52.4
Lime........... 17.8 Boracic acid.... 3.2 Oxide of calcium 8.3
Alkalis......... 6.6 Oxide of iron... 0.6 Soda and potassa 4.2
------ Oxide of calcium 4.2 Water and loss.. 2.5
100.0 Water and loss.. 5.2 -----
----- 100.0
100.0
These analyses were made by Professor Augustus Steitz, assayer of the
First National Bank of Helena, Mont.]
[Footnote W: On our return home, finding that no tidings of Mr. Everts
had been received, Jack Baronette and George A. Prichett, two
experienced trappers and old mountaineers, were provided with thirty
days' provisions and dispatched in search of him, and by them Mr. Everts
was found on October 16th, after wandering in the forest for
thirty-seven days from the time he was lost. From the letter of Mr.
Prichett addressed to Mr. Gillette, myself and others, I quote: "We
found him on the 16th inst. on the summit of the first big mountain
beyond Warm Spring creek, about seventy-five miles from Fort Ellis. He
says he subsisted all this time on one snow bird, two small minnows and
the wing of a bird which he found and mashed between two stones, and
made some broth of in a yeast powder can. This was all, with the
exception of thistle roots, he had subsisted on."
The narrative of Mr. Everts, of his thirty-seven days' sojourn in the
wilderness (published in Scribner's Magazine for November, 1871, and in
volume V. of the Montana Historical Society publications), furnishes a
chapter in the history of human endurance, exposure, and escape, almost
as incredible as it is painfully instructive and entertaining.]
[Footnote X: Our general line of travel from the southwest estuary of
the lake (Thumb) to the Firehole river was about one mile south of the
present stage route. The tourist who to-day makes the rapid and
comfortable tour of the park by stage, looking south from Shoshone
Point, may catch a glimpse of a portion of the prostrate forest through
and over which we struggled, and thus form some idea of the difficulties
which beset us on our journey from the lake to the Firehole river.]
[Footnote Y: Called now Kepler's cascade.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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