364 
hot water, and give a little alcohol to stimulate the heart. 
Snake bite is dangerous in proportion to the size ol the 
snake, its condition, and in the South, where the rep- 
tiles are more active, they are more deadly than at the 
North." 
Dan was lying with his head on the Colonel's arm dur- 
ing this lecture, apparently sleeping, but when the Doc- 
tor had finished and went to see if the bleeding stdl 
continued under the loose bandage, placed to receive 
the blood, Dan raised his head and licked the Doctor s 
hand; the hand that had cut, burned, and had dosed him 
with burning whisky. A wild animal would have re- 
sented such treatment, and would have bitten the hand 
that had caused Jt pain, but great-hearted Dan knew 
that his friends would only do what was best for him, and 
he trusted them. Was this instinct? Let those answer 
who believe that a high-bred dog cannot reason because 
his vocal chords are not developed sufficiently to speak 
our languages. That they understand such parts of our 
speech as are addressed to them needs no argument, but 
they go further, they reason. This thing is being argued 
now in Forest and Stream, and I long to get into the 
fray, but will stop now and perhaps take up the question 
by itself. A poor, stricken dog, possessing great in- 
telligence, provoked these remarks. 
When Dan licked the Doctor's hand while he was 
looking at the bandaged leg, the dog had to raise up 
and bend over, showing that he had some strength. We 
all noted it, and as the Doctor patted Dan's head, rubbed 
his ears, and said: "Dan, old boy, you'll be all right in 
the morning!" every one in the room stood in line to 
put a hand on his head and give him a rub at the base 
of an ear, a spot where it always pleases a dog to have a 
man's hand. Jack came last. He had never taken his 
eyes from the Doctor's face while the poison lecture was 
in progress, and we had not paid much attention to the 
boy. When he put his hand on Dan's head he broke 
down; he kissed the dog and cried, and then broke 
from the room, with Dan up on his forefeet trying to 
return the kisses. George followed Jack, and some- 
how I had need of a handkerchief, while the Colonel 
rolled over with his face to the wall, and the Doctor 
turned to the window to see what the night was like. 
Some minutes elapsed before the Colonel broke the 
silence with: "Doctor, my heart action is feeble, there 
are lemons and hot water, if you will be good enough 
to compound for all of us, as you have done for Dan. 
When I mentioned his name just now he began thrashing 
the bed with his tail, the first time he has used that 
appendage since his injury. If he is able to do it, please 
call him from the bed and show him the rug he is to 
sleep on, and then I will be ready to have my ankle 
dressed for the night." 
The Doctor busied himself with the preparation of his 
heart vibrator for a while, and when it was blended to 
his satisfaction he called loudly: "Dan, come down 
here!" The dog got up from the Colonel's arm, looked 
over the bed to the floor, and leaped down. "There's 
your bed," said the Doctor, pointing to a bear skin rug, 
and Dan curled up on it for the night. If the dog 
obeyed from "instinct," I must confess to being ignor- 
ant "of the difference between intelligence and what is 
called "instinct." 
In the morning Dan greeted us all in the good old 
way. The Doctor and I had everything packed for our 
trip to the rice country, promises to write and to come 
again mingled with the good-byes, the carry-all was at 
the door and we started to meet the steamer on Red 
River. ._ __ 
[to be continued.] 
The Ascent of the Grand Teton. 
I. — Statement of "William O. Owen. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Capt. Langford and his friends are insisting that 
Messrs. Spalding and Owen arc not the first to reach the 
summit of the Grand Teton, claiming that the first 
ascent was rhade by Messrs. Stevenson and Langford in 
1872. 
They point to the official report of the U. S. Geological 
Survey and an article by Capt. Langford which appeared 
in Scribner's Magazine for June, 1873, as evidence of 
their successful climb. 
And this is the only evidence (?) they have in support 
of their claim. I maintain that the first ascent of the 
Grand Teton was made by the Rev. Frank Spalding 
and myself, accompanied by Frank Petersen and John 
Shive, on Aug. 11, 1898, and I submit herewith the state- 
ments and affidavits on which this claim is based. 
I further contend that Messrs. Stevenson and Langford 
in their alleged ascent did not reach the true summit of 
the peak, but stopped about 600ft. below it. \nd I have 
the testimony to prove it. 
In support of the above x send you: 
First.— The affidavit of Thomas Coooer, who was with 
the Hayden survey for years, and who is at present 
an honored resident of Cheyenne, Wyo 
Second.- — Extract from a letter written by Mr. Henry 
Gannett, Chief Geographer U. S. Geological Survey, and 
a close friend of Mr. Langford. 
Third. — An affidavit of Gov. Richards, of Wyoming, 
as to the statement made to him by Richard Leigh, who 
was with the Langford parly when they attempted the 
ascent. 
Fourth. — My own statement as to the condition of 
things on the summit of the peak as we found them, 
and deductions from Capt. Langford's narnv.ive in Scrib- 
ner's Magazine of 1873, and in various letters to me in 
the past few years. 
Richard Leigh's statement to Gov. Richards was made 
only two years after Langford's alleged ascent, and as 
he was with the party it is of great value. 
He is commonly known as Beaver Dick, and was the 
guide of the Hayden party for years. He is still living, 
and can be reached by mail at St. Anthony, Idaho. 
Thomas Cooper is. one of our best citizens, and is stilf 
living in Cheyenne, where mail will find him at any 
time. 
I send you letter from Judge C. N. Potter, Chief Jus- 
tice of our Supreme Court, as to Mr. Cooper's veracity 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
and character, which please publish with this article. 
In the first place, I desire to place especial emphasis 
on the fact that the most critical, conscientious and 
thorough search by our entire party failed to reveal the 
slightest shadow of evidence of a former ascent. Not 
a stone was turned over, no cairn or monument erected ; 
nor could we find can or bottle of any description con- 
taining the customary record of ascent. Five minutes 
would have sufficed to erect a suitable monument, which 
would have completely set at rest all questions as to the 
first ascent, and yet Stevenson and Langford failed to 
build it. One stone piled on another would have an- 
swered, but even this was not done. And still Capt. 
Langford informs us that several days were devoted to 
the ascent and necessary preparation for it. Is it in 
the realm of probability that men would make such 
heroic efforts to climb this mighty peak, a mountain 
known the world over, and then, having reached the 
summit, return without so much as turning a stone 
over, or leaving their names to tell the story to sub- 
sequent climbers? And .the Captain very wisely re- 
frains from mentioning anything bearing on such record 
of an ascent. 
In all his published articles, and letters to me, not 
the slightest allusion to this all-important matter can be 
found. Of course there are the best of reasons for this 
silence. Not having reached the true summit, it was 
impossible to place a record there; and the Captain be- 
lieving that the ascent might be made at some future day 
chose to. leave the question open for speculation, rather 
than make a statement which the first successful climber 
could positively disprove. 
Langford's Scribner article (June, 1873) is replete with 
statements that the Captain would never have made had 
he actually reached the summit of the peak. 
"Mosquitoes attacked us even on the very summit," 
Mr. Langford says; but this statement was not enough, 
and the Captain adds the following, which are still more 
wonderful: "Above the ice belt, over which we had 
made such a perilous ascent, we saw in the debris the 
fresh track of that American ibex — the mountain sheep — 
the only animal known to clamber up the sides of our 
loftiest peaks." 
"Flowers also, of beauteous hue and delicate fra- 
grance, peeped through the snow wherever a rocky jut 
had penetrated the icy surface." 
Now let it be understood that this point where the 
mountain sheep tracks and flowers were seen is only 
125ft. below the summit of the peak, taking the Captain's 
own figures for it. It would be just as easy for the sheep 
to climb to the top of the Washington monument as 
to scale the last 600ft. of the Teton. As for the flowers, 
there isn't a semblance of vegetable life, except lichens, 
on the Grand Teton, above the artificial inclosure. Con- 
cerning mosquitoes, it would be folly to dignify this 
assertion by discussing it. It is simply too ridiculous to 
dwell upon. 
Continuing, Mr. Langford says: "The main summit, 
separated by erosions from the surrounding knobs, em- 
braced an irregular area of 30 by 40ft. Exposure to the 
winds kept it free from snow and ice, and its bald, de- 
nuded head was worn smooth by the elemental war- 
fare waged around it." - 
This statement proves beyond the shadow of a doubt 
that Cant. Langford has never seen the summit of the 
Grand Teton. There are no "surrounding knobs" there 
in any sense of the word. When one reaches the true 
summit of this noble mountain the "other knobs" have 
all disappeared. The actual summit measured with a 
steel tape (U. S. standard) is just 14 by 27ft.— the 14 
being the greatest thickness of the comb. Most of it is 
about 3ft. wide, and in several places narrows down to a 
single foot! 
No man probably is better qualified to estimate size 
and distance than Capt. Langford, and his dimensions of 
30 by 40ft. are quite amusing to one who has actually seen 
the summit. Another very instructive statement is as 
follows: "With the unshorn beams of a summer sun 
shining full upon us, we were obliged to don our overcoats 
for protection against the cold mountain breeze." (The 
italics are mine.) Of course they would have their over- 
coats along climbing that last 600ft.. where it was neces- 
sary to scale a sheet of ice 175ft. long, with a slope of 
only 20 degrees from the vertical, and where the climbers 
kicked steps with the Iocs of their boots in the blue ice, as 
hard as granite! An ideal trip for overcoats, most cer- 
tainly. And this also bears unimpeachable testimony 
to the hardihood and vigor of . our native mosquitoes. 
When it comes to mosquitoes. Wyoming is hard to beat! 
After reaching the summit, Mr. Langford, among 
other things, says: "On the top of an adjoining pin- 
nacle, but little lower than the one we occupied, we found 
a circular. inclosure 6ft. in diameter, composed of granite 
slabs. It was evidently intended as a protection against 
the wind, and we were only too glad to avail ourselves 
of it while we finished our luncheon." 
After luncheon he continues his description of what 
could be seen from the summit, conveying the im- 
pression that this inclosure is readily accessible _ from 
the summit, and that to run from one to the other is but 
the work of a few seconds, whereas it is the most difficult 
part of the ascent by all odds. The pictures in the 
Scribner article are extremely fanciful, that of the sum- 
mit of the mountain being no more like the actual apex 
than Trinity Church is like a man-of-war. Our photo- 
graphs show this conclusively. 
Now, would Capt. Langford have published such a 
drawing as this if he had had the material from which to 
make an accurate and correct one? Under date of Sept. 
15, 189S, Capt. Langford wrote to me as follows: "T 
feel sure that no one can reach the summit from that 
side when the mountain side is bare of ice and snow. 
We never could have reached the summit but for the aid 
of the sheet of ice, which formed our ladder." The fact 
is that no living man would attempt the ascent on this 
side were he compelled to climb over an ice sheet, and 
the Captain's statement that an ascent would be im- 
possible without this ice is disproved by our own ascent, 
which was made over naked granite, 
Mr. Langford savs the ice sheet lay at an angle of 
20 degrees from the vertical, and he and Stevenson 
climbed over it for a distance of 175ft. bv kicking steps 
with their feet in this hard, blue ice. This statement 
might be passed over unnoticed by the ordinary reader 
LNOV. S> I$9& 
— -tn-n-T^-rn-— ^V'.^:.-t-g=-^^'--^w SSSB — i I ■ - 
who has had no experience in mountain climbing, but 
the man who has been through the mill cannot stomacn 
it. It requires a steel ice axe, and a good one too, to cnt 
steps in such ice, and every mountaineer knows it. A 
slope of only 20 degrees from the vertical is frightfully 
steep; in fact, it is practically as bad as vertical, and 
when a man says that he" climbed 175ft. over a field of 
ice having such inclination, by gouging steps with his boot 
toes, it seems to me it is going a step too far. 
Let }'Our readers picture to themselves this last 600ft. 
of the Grand Teton, which rises almost vertically. If 
the climber loses his footing at any stage of the ascent 
he must inevitably be precipitated to the bottom of the 
canon, a distance of 3,000ft.! It is, under the most 
favorable conditions, a hand and toe climb over glassy 
granite. Now, over this granite steepness lay a coating 
of blue, hard ice, and make the ascent by kicking steps 
in the ice with your boot toes, and you will realize 
what Mr. Langford's statement means. 
The Captain would never have made such statements 
as the above if he could have known what an awful climb 
that last 600ft. is. The mountain sheep, the flowers, that 
picture of the summit, the overcoats and mosquitoes 
are too much for human nature to stand. And to 
crown it all, they ran away after making the ascent (?), 
and didn't so much as leave their card to prove their 
visit. They couldn't even spare the time to chisel their 
names in the granite, build a small monument of rock, 
leave a can Avith their names in, anything, however 
simple, to prove to subsequent climbers that man had 
been there before them. 
The mountaineering fraternity will understand this 
statement; and it will be interesting to hear the Cap- 
tain's explanation of their failure to leave some little 
shadow of a record on the summit of the grandest peak 
in the United States. 
In closing I will say that I understand Capt. Lang- 
ford's position in this controversy, and appreciate the 
fact that he has but one course open to him. He must 
insist that he reached the top of the peak, no matter what 
may come of it. He so published it in the official re- 
port of the U. S. Geological Survey, and it would be a 
great concession at this time to come out squarely and 
admit to the world that what this report says is not true. 
Capt. Langford, at the time of his alleged ascent, was 
chief of a division of the Hayden Survey, and it cannot 
be expected that he will admit that a wrong statement 
was willfully incorporated in his report. This is too 
much to ask, and I appreciate the Captain's difficult po- 
sition at this time, and make due allowance for it. But 
aside from this there is the fact that neither this official 
report nor Capt. Langford's delicate position cuts any 
figure in this proposition, as far as the world at large 
is concerned. The question is: Who made the first 
ascent of the Grand Teton? 
And on the above statement of facts and the accom- 
panying affidavits we rest our case. If Capt. Langford 
failed to leave a record of his ascent on the summit of the 
peak. Spalding and Owen certainly did not, and subse- 
quent explorers will verify every word of our narrative 
of the first ascent of the Grand Teton. ♦ Our names are 
chiseled in the granite, a large monument of stone is 
erected on the highest point, and a metal banner of red, 
white and blue, bearing the Rocky Mountain Club's in- 
signia, waves upon the Teton's mighty brow, where foot 
of man never trod previous to Aug. 11, 1898. 
William O. Owen. 
II. — Affidavit of Thomas Cooper. 
State of Wyoming, ) 
County of Laramie, ) 
I, Thomas Cooper, of Cheyenne, Wyo., being first 
duly sworn, do depose and say that I was connected with 
the U. S. Geological Survey in the years 1872-73-74-75-77 
and 78, in the years 1872 and 1873 being with the Wheeler 
expedition, and am personally acquainted with the several 
gentlemen who had charge of the various divisions at 
that time, including Mr. Henry Gannett, Mr. James 
Stevenson, Messrs. N. P. Langford, Chittenden, Holmes, 
Bechler and many others. 
I was also intimately acquainted with Mr, F. V. Hay- 
den, the director-in-chief of the survey. 
I well remember the accounts of Messrs. Stevenson 
and Langford's attempt to climb the Grand Teton; 
and their published narrative of the trip provoked a pro- 
longed and heated discussion between Lieut. Wheeler's 
party (of the War Department) and the friends of Stev- 
enson and Langford. 
The former persistently insisted that these gentlemen 
had never reached the actual summit of the peak, while 
the latter as strenuously insisted that they did. 
All members of the Geological Survey were, to a 
greater or less extent, drawn into this controversy; and 
I can say positively, from personal talks with Prof. Hay- 
den, that he was one of the liveliest doubters of the lot, 
for he frequently said to me that he did not believe that \ 
Stevenson and Langford had ever reached the summit. 
My own personal knowledge of this ascent is em- 
braced in the following statement: 
In the summer of 1877 the Geological Survey outfitted 
at N. R. Davis' ranch, near Cheyenne, and shipped 
thence to Ogden. From Ogden wc went to Port Neuf 
Canon, thence to Fort Hall, Idaho, and thence to Market 
Lake. . From Market Lake we proceeded to Henry's 
Fork of Snake River, thence to Fall River, and finally 
recrossed the divide to the Teton Basin, making camp 
on a small branch of Teton River, Idaho, near the Teton j 
Range. 
While outfitting at Davis' ranch, as mentioned above, 
Prof. Hayden called me aside and said: "Tom, I have 
a little special work for you this season. I want you, as j 
soon as possible, to visit the Grand Teton, ascend it as far 
as you possibly can, and ascertain for me how high a 
point was reached by Stevenson and Langford. I want 
you also to bring back some specimens of the rock 
from the peak at the highest point you reach, and also 
some samples from the rocks forming the inclosure de- 
scribed by Stevenson and Langford." Prof. Havclen 1 
then gave me an aneroid barometer, telling me carefully 
to note the altitude at the hishest point attained. He 
subsequently gave orders to Mr. Bechler. chief topog- j 
rapher, to assist me in every wav possible, to camp ', 
wherever I should direct, and remain with me until this I 
work was accomplished. In pursuance of these instruc- 
