The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1883-06-06

iness and not out for sightseeing,
l paid little attention to its beauty
The canon continued, getting deeper
as we went down, and in some places
it was about eight to twelve hundred
feet deep, very crooked, turning at
right angles in a distance of less than
one hundred and fifty feet; in one or
two places it turned so abruptly that
we we're unable to tell which way it
tHrned when we were three hundred
feet distant. The water rushed
through the gorge with frightful We
locity and an idea of its force may he
bad by imagining Tionesta creek
flowing through a gorge twenty y-fve
feet wide and falling about fifty. feet
to mile. We did not try to fish any
although we saw myriads of them in
the still places in the "washouts" in
the canon. The ledge we were on
continued fer nearly mile and then
came to an end. We had much more
difficulty in getting down than we had
in getting onto it. BY night we had
travelled, probably, seven or eight
miles, and / cannot remember of any
time that l was more wearied out
than l was that day. We found our
old washout in the side of the canon
apd concluded to remain there for the
night. An old spruce log had washed
down out of the park and lodged on a
boulder visar by our camping place |;
this we cut up with our tomahawks
and soon had good fire and a supper
that would have done credit to q first
class hotel. We heated a piece of
clinkstone to red heat and on it
broiled our elk steak made coffee in
our "sups" (brsss drinking cups),
baked few sweet potatoes that we
had brought with us and being very
hungry we relished our meal far more
than I have, often, at good hotels, on
other occasions. After supper l fin.
ished taking nay notes then made our
beds and retired" We we're not
long in going to sleep, and never
passed night in my life that 1 had
that feeling of absolute security that
I did that night. On either side we're
high massive walls placed there by
the Eternal One; above was the i'm.
passable opening of a yawning chasm
which it would be death to attempt
to descend, along the canon were
natural defences, where we three, as
long as our ammunition lasted, could
have held the remainder of the people
of the globe in check. Its fern was
such that but one man could have
approached us at sany time. The
rocks projected over us in such a
manner that it would have been ina
possable to have reached us from
above and nothing short of an earth.
quake could have dislodged us. We
awoke and after breakfast we contin.
ued our examination on down the can. i.
on. There was but little change over
the previous day. Our poles and
rope did good service in many places,
and about the middle of the fourth
day out Of camp we came to the
mouth of the canon at the base of the
northern slope of the Medicine Bow
Range and opened on the Laramie
Plains. We went north to the U. P.
Road, and took the train for Laramie,
thence, sonth via Cammins, through
Pinkham Pass back to camp, being
gone six days.
After going through the Platte
Canon | deemed it impracticable for a
railway line and started through
Pinkham Pass and completed the line
we had previously run through that
section from the Park. We went
dow fromn the summit on a grade
of 1882 feet per mile until we came
to the Big Laramie Canon, where
failure stared me in the face. 1 had
done but comparatively little canon
work and it seemed as though my
sslf-reliauce was all gone when we
came to the head of the canon. We
however, went to work, aud with O
| o.rnnt dnnl &C Ln II L. La. ...l |.