THE MUSEUM. 



4S 



which these animals, with their scanty 

 supply of oxygen, can engender goes 

 to the labor of fight and chase, the 

 ceaseless struggle to obtain food, or to 

 avoid falling a prey to their enemies." 

 However, there are other beings in the 

 world besides fish whose "ceaseless 

 struggle to obtain food" prevents the 

 intellectual development that they 

 would like to reach. 



The life of the explorer of the bot- 

 tom of the sea is not on the whole ex- 

 citing. It is slow work sounding and 

 hauling the drag, but there are few- 

 more interesting occupations at sea in 

 these days and occasionally the condi- 

 tions attending the work make it seem 

 at least adventurous. Soundings have 

 been made in a seaway where the ship 

 rolled 3 5 degrees to port and 33 to 

 starbord, and in a gale that was "the 

 worst one ever experienced by any of 

 the officers on board." The ship has 

 gone short of fuel, and had to depend 

 wholly on sails; worse yet, it has gone 

 short of food, so that the last bread 

 was served while the ship wallowed in 

 a gale hundreds of miles from port. 

 Part of the work is necessarily disagree- 

 able, for the dredges bring up no end 

 of mud, and there is a mess on deck 

 every time the dredge is examined. 

 But in spite of the weather and all 

 other drawbacks, the men as well as 

 the officers become as interested in the 

 finds as a prospector in a new lead. 

 The records of every voyage of the 

 kind show that where vacancies occur 

 in the crew from any cause, there is 

 found an eager host of volunteers ready 

 to step on board. 



W. F. Webb, Esq., Dear Sir: I am very 

 well satL«fieil with the magazine; it is one of 

 the Ijest I hav9 seeu. Wishing you great suc- 

 cess ill business. I remain Resp. yours, W. J. 

 Fo.\, Utica, N. Y. 



Among the Rockies. 



BY .M. J. ELKOD. 



V. 

 From Island Park to Yellowstone Park. 



Island Park extends along the Snake 

 river for about 25 miles. It is an 

 ideal place, for the sportsman or nat- 

 uralist, and many interesting speci- 

 mens were found there. The altitude 

 of this park is about 6000 ft. As a 

 consequence the season is short and 

 not suitable for crops, though a large 

 irrigation ditch has already been dug, 

 leading the water out over the river 

 bottom. The river in this park makes 

 innumerable windings and turnings, 

 the short channels and cut offs making 

 many islands, which give the name to 

 the park. Pen cannot protray the 

 beauties of the place and a photograph 

 does not do it justice. The sky is 

 cloudless, of the beautiful azure tint 

 ' haracteristic of mountain regions. 

 The olear water, glistening in the rays 

 of' the sun, looks like streams of silver 

 as it flows along, and the slope of the 

 bed gives such a current as to make a 

 continuous hum as of a distant water- 

 fall. Grass grows to the very edge of 

 the water, lending a beautiful contrast, 

 while the ever beautiful pines give a 

 background for it all that would make 

 an artist d&nce for joy. And beyond 

 these on either side, with all their 

 beauty and majesty, the mountains lift 

 their green summits toward the heav- 

 ens, with here and there a bald peak 

 above the line of verdure. 



A day's camp was made here in 

 1894, two days in 1895, though the 

 camps were several miles apart. Off 

 toward the southeast the beautiful 

 Tetons may be seen, their bald sum- 

 mits here and there showing patches 



