[Footnote L:  Repeated efforts to ascend the Grand Teton, made prior to the year 1872, all terminated in failure.  On the 29th day of July of that year the summit was reached by James Stevenson, of the U.S.  Geological Survey, and Nathaniel P. Langford, the writer of this diary.  An account of this ascent was published in Scribner’s (now Century) Magazine for June, 1873.  The next ascent was made in 1898 by Rev. Frank S. Spalding, of Erie, Pennsylvania, and W.O.  Owen, of Wyoming, and two assistants.  This ascent was accomplished after two failures of Mr. Owen in previous years to reach the summit.  Mr. Owen then asserted that the summit of the mountain was not reached in 1872 by Stevenson and Langford.  His efforts—­in which Mr. Spalding had no part—­to impeach the statement of these gentlemen failed utterly.  Mr. Spalding, who was the first member of his party to reach the summit, writes:  “I believe that Mr. Langford reached the summit because he says he did, and because the difficulties of the ascent were not great enough to have prevented any good climber from having successfully scaled the peak, * * * and I cannot understand why Mr. Owen failed so many times before he succeeded.”]

[Footnote M:  The bay here referred to is at the “Thumb” Station.]

[Footnote N:  Captain Raynolds wrote on May 10, 1860:  “To our front and upon the right the mountains towered above us to the height of from 2,000 to 3,000 feet in the shape of bold, craggy peaks of basaltic formation, their summits crowned with glistening snow. * * * It was my original desire to go from the head of Wind river to the head of the Yellowstone, keeping on the Atlantic slope, thence down the Yellowstone, passing the lake, and across by the Gallatin to the Three forks of the Missouri.  Bridger said, at the outset, that this would be impossible, and that it would be necessary to pass over to the head waters of the Columbia, and back again to the Yellowstone.  I had not previously believed that crossing the main crest twice would be more easily accomplished than the travel over what in effect is only a spur; but the view from our present camp settled the question adversely to my opinion at once.  Directly across our route lies a basaltic ridge, rising not less than 5,000 feet above us, the walls apparently vertical, with no visible pass nor even canon.  On the opposite side of this are the head waters of the Yellowstone.”]

[Footnote O:  Later, in 1833, the indomitable Captain Bonneville was lost in this mountain labyrinth, and, after devising various modes of escape, finally determined to ascend the range.

Washington Irving, in his charming history, “Bonneville’s Adventures,” thus describes the efforts of General Bonneville and one of his comrades to reach the summit of this range: