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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 1, 1884)
50 THE WEST SHORE. THE THREE TETONS. Lying near the boundary line separating Idaho and Wyoming, between Jackson's Luke and Snake River on thn eaKt and Piorre's Hole on the went, is a range of nrndlo-imintocl granite peaks, extending from the Grand Canyon of Snake River northward, a distance of forty miles, to the southern extremity of the National Park of the Yellowstone. These form a portion of what was in former years termed the "Wind River Mountains," which region bore the doserved reputation among the early trapjMirH anil mountaineers of being the most rugged and impassable of all the ranges of that great "backbone of tho continent," tho Rocky Mountains. They were first observed by Wilson Price Hunt's party, while crossing the continent in 1811 to assist in establishing at Astoria the headquarters of the Pacific Fur Company. On that memorable journey, which was fraught with more privations and suffering than any overland passage before or since, the three culminating spires served as landmarks for many days, and were called by Mr. Hunt the Pilot Knobs. A few years after the French trappers of the Hudson's Bay Company christened them tho Throe Tetons, and by this name were they known by tho hardy mountaineers who found in the streams and "holes" of this region their richest trapping grounds. Hardy and brave as were these men, they wore seldom given to mountain climbing simply to feast their eyes upon Nature's panorama. Yet many of them sought to scalo the icy sides of the central and highest one without success. In 18fi0 ...... A-'lXVtDl, that vi'tanm mountaineer, asserted that by his old com- and the thought carries us away in musings upon our ignorance of the early races of America and speculations upon the nature of the prehistoric people who have left this enduring monument of their existence on the crowning dome of the Tetons. z. , . i i Sponge Fishing in Florida. Lying on his chest along the boat's deck the fisher with his water-glass a pane set in a box fitted with han' dies looks down forty feet into the clear depths. With one hand he grasps and sinks a slender pole, sometimes fifty feet in length, fitted at the end with a double hook. The sponge once discovered, the hook is deftly inserted at the rocky base, and by a sudden jerk the sponge is de tached to be brought up on deck. "When first pulled from the rocks where it grows the sponge looks like a corni gated mass of putty. It is drab in color, exceedingly heavy, has a sickening odor, and is suffused by a stringy mucous which drops from it in long viscous lines. The external pores are partly closed up by a sort of sea kg, which finds refuge in them, and must be an annoying in. terloper to the sponge builder; while often a red sea worm, an inch or two in length, is found far within the spongy fibres, whither he has worked his way. What is the exact function of the mucous fluid does not yet appear to be clearly settled. But it is certain that when taken from the sponge and placed on still bottoms, new sponges are propagated from it; and if two species of the same living sponge, or of different sponges of the same species, are laid side by side on the sea bottom, they soon grow together, lhe vitality of the sponge, in fact, coupled m.U it u.,.u .-. ; i - i , r ' "u luo UW51B1 oi uie supply, suggests mat ere many 1'rofoHHor V V if ,i. : ". uu curt description of what seems the simple work of sponge .... MM k! ' ISSSiTtt? ' 4 H and . mM .M i - :.. x, i r , ""u,u umy I0 f n eye of the fisher has to be framed bv lone exDerience Zll si' "l "trVU th referred to them u th Sharks ln,th a lmme far more in it tho nparnnco of their spire-like teps than the title " U l ren,h rappors. The altitude is variously given S 1 13,737, and fiX in wi i, tin i.yr.U KH'U In 1872 was made thn miK. nun..t 11- u i.; x ii ' ui mis mountain nf (leu it ttempteltheasenLfl,l11f i T 8 ftteven8n lUiwnU n . . mui -Lancforc W f-irl, w 27 ?PyC0nsithaUhey JW it Mount Hay W lnBh "7 7 -Motion. Tho uSbVrt0?,118 Chief f their imlmbly tho .mlTwJX ? """ a,ld ll-y found evidences 3 th Z i t u Cme' N tho top they dismx? Ufbumanbeing9. W - worn l,yl" I. which W delritu, lliyyBt tlVt, tWent8 't the , , . J o x- to peer into the sea and tell the commercially valuahle sponges from those that are worthless. He must have a deft hand to manaee the swaviner hnnk fnrtv feel down so w j o j as to detach the sponge without a tear. Above all, while doing this with one hand, he must manipulate with the other the water-glass as the waves sway it sideways -and up or down. The strain on eye and body is most intense, to say nothing of the cramped position and exposure to wind and wet, which, first and last, make almost every ijngB nsner a victim of acute rheumatism. . .Yet with all his arduous toil, n rfllfllfnl crnsvnrva fialiai ooirta Tint 111016 than $15 a month besides his "keep" on the boat, which wy aeserves tne name of existence. Tourist Uazene. . Madison Canyon. One of the most attractive spots in Montana, and one which will soon be rendered easily accessible to tourists, is the canyon of. Madison Eiver, on the edge of the Rational Park of the Yellowstone. It is reached by the branch line of the Utah & Northern Railroad, which will soon be constructed into the Park When this is done the scene, of which we present an engraving on the next Page, will become a familiar one to travelers.