F. GEOGRAPHY. 199 



stranger to the singular purity of the atmosphere in high al- 

 titudes. 



Much better routes to the National Park were discovered 

 than those of the previous year. From the head of Middle 

 Fork to the main valley of Snake River there is a pass in the 

 range with an elevation of but eight feet above the valley 

 on either side. A wagon road through this pass would make 

 the distance from Market Lake, on the Corinne and Helena 

 stage road, to Yellowstone Lake only 100 miles. 



The opening of the Snake River Valley will doubtless 

 prove one of the most important events in the annals of our 

 scientific explorations during the year 1872. The barometric- 

 al elevations show most feasible routes for railroads connect- 

 in <r the entire Northwest with the. Pacific railroads. It will 

 also open up to settlement a vast territory of land equal to 

 the finest in that section of our country. A railroad up the 

 Snake River Valley from Utah, which is now contemplated, 

 will bring into market a tract of pine timber estimated at 

 2500 square miles in extent, and a much larger area of graz- 

 ing and arable lands. 



The ascent of the Grand Teton must be regarded as one of 

 the most important events of the season. Thirteen members 

 of the party attempted to ascend the highest peak, and only 

 two succeeded in reaching the summit, Mr. James Stevenson 

 and Hon. N. P. Langford, Superintendent of the National 

 Park. They are undoubtedly the only white men that ever 

 reached its summit ; yet there were indications that human 

 beings had been there before them. On the top of the Grand 

 Teton, and for 300 feet below, are great quantities of granite 

 blocks of different sizes. On the summit these blocks have 

 been placed on end, forming a breastwork three feet high, in- 

 closing a circular space six or seven feet in diameter ; and, 

 while on the surrounding rocks there is not a particle of dust 

 or sand, the bottom of this inclosure is covered with a bed 

 of minute particles of granite, not larger than the grains of 

 common sand, which the elements have worn off from these 

 vertical blocks, until it is nearly a foot in depth. This attrition 

 must have been going on for hundreds, and perhaps for thou- 

 sands of years. We may infer, therefore, that these granite 

 slabs were, most probably, placed in their present position 

 bv Indians many centuries aoro. The height of the Grand 



