t was accomplished after two failures of Mr. Owen
in previous years to reach the summit. Mr. Owen then asserted that the
summit of the mountain was not reached in 1872 by Stevenson and
Langford. His efforts--in which Mr. Spalding had no part--to impeach the
statement of these gentlemen failed utterly. Mr. Spalding, who was the
first member of his party to reach the summit, writes: "I believe that
Mr. Langford reached the summit because he says he did, and because the
difficulties of the ascent were not great enough to have prevented any
good climber from having successfully scaled the peak, * * * and I
cannot understand why Mr. Owen failed so many times before he
succeeded."]

[Footnote M: The bay here referred to is at the "Thumb" Station.]

[Footnote N: Captain Raynolds wrote on May 10, 1860: "To our front and
upon the right the mountains towered above us to the height of from
2,000 to 3,000 feet in the shape of bold, craggy peaks of basaltic
formation, their summits crowned with glistening snow. * * * It was my
original desire to go from the head of Wind river to the head of the
Yellowstone, keeping on the Atlantic slope, thence down the Yellowstone,
passing the lake, and across by the Gallatin to the Three forks of the
Missouri. Bridger said, at the outset, that this would be impossible,
and that it would be necessary to pass over to the head waters of the
Columbia, and back again to the Yellowstone. I had not previously
believed that crossing the main crest twice would be more easily
accomplished than the travel over what in effect is only a spur; but the
view from our present camp settled the question adversely to my opinion
at once. Directly across our route lies a basaltic ridge, rising not
less than 5,000 feet above us, the walls apparently vertical, with no
visible pass nor even canon. On the opposite side of this are the head
waters of the Yellowstone."]

[Footnote O: Later, in 1833, the indomitable Captain Bonneville was lost
in this mountain labyrinth, and, after devising various modes of escape,
finally determined to ascend the range.

Washington Irving, in his charming history, "Bonneville's Adventures,"
thus describes the efforts of General Bonneville and one of his comrades
to reach the summit of this range:

"After much toil he reached the summit of a lofty cliff, but it was only
to behold gigantic peaks rising all around, and towering far into the
snowy regions of the atmosphere. He soon found th