Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1900-10-18


tives he told of the wonders of the
Yellowstone country were universally
characterized as "Old Jim Bridger's
lies" He tried to have a description
of the country published, but no news
paper of that day would accept it. Col
onel r. T. Van Horn, for many years
editor of the Kansas City Journal and
for several terms member of Con-
gress, prepared a series of articles with
material furnished by Bridger, but it
was impossible to induce any maga-
zine or other periodical to accept
them. Although they were unusually
| accurate descriptions of natural phe-
nomena, since witnessed by every Wis
itor to this park, they were then re-
garded as the inventions of vulgar
Munchausen. Bridger described the
country tersely as "a place where hell
bubbles up"
For example he never could make
anybody believe in the existence of a
mountain of glass, which is now
known to all tourists as Obsidlan Cliff,
remarkable formation of columns
several hundred feet high. A consld-
cradle portion of the soil in that sec
tion of the park is silica, crystal sand
of which glass is usually made. At
this particular spot, in some remote
age the silica was melted by volcanic
heat and running together formed a
mountain of glass when it cooled The
heads and came hundreds of miles to
obtain it, because it was better than
flint
Another of Jim Bridger's stories
which the public then refused to az
cept told of catching fish in cold water
on one side, and then, without taking
them from the hook or changing posi-
ton, throwing them into hot spring
where they were cooked in few min
utes. This, however, is done frequent
ly. Anybody can try this experiment
who desires, and within few yards of
the lunch station, at what is called the
Thumb, still more extraordinary ex-
perience may be enjoyed. 1t is posi-
bic to catch and cook a fish in the
same water At a point along the
shore an immense boiling spring dis
charges its overflow directly into Yel-
soldiers in the relief expedition con-
ceived the Idea Of paying their debts
for food secured from the natives by
leaving similar letters to the ones Gill
more and his party had left and as
suring the Filipinos that when the
letters were presented to the next
body of American troops that came
they would pay the bill three or four
times over
We followed in the wake of scout
ing party that had ben sent out two
or three days previously and We
turned up the following remarkable
missive that was carried out to us up
on our approach as proudly as the
Gilmore letters were brought out of
the bigger towns:
To ANY Americans Who Come This
Way-Greeting:
This man here gave me a dozen
eggs, TWO chickens and pack of rice.
Please reward him suitably, as l hay
mt drawn any money from the govern
ment for so long that forget what it
looks like. Truly thine,
George Washington,
Jerry Simpson.
Another communication was signed
by Teddy Roosevelt" although the
candidate for the Vice Presidency has
lowstone lake. The specific gravity Of
hot water being less than that of cold
water, the discharge Of hot water fioa,s 5
in a stratum two or three feet thick
upon the cold water of the lake for
quite an area. The lake abounds in
salmon, trout ard other fish that take
the bait readily. Tourists sink their
hooks through the stratum of hot
water into the cold water below and
when a fish is caught they draw it w
into the hot water, wher it will be
cooked ready for eating in a very few
minutes. This is a favorite place for
tourists to be photographed. The
{ scouts report that last winter an elk
was cooked alive in one OF the hot
| springs.
Perhaps the most extraordinary
yarn told by Jim Bridger of the won
( ders of this park related to the petri
fed forest which he discovered along
side the Yellowstone river between tht
canon and the Mammoth hot spring
From accounts that have come dow
to us, Bridger may have indulget