were as coldly recited as if it had been a usual thing to climb perpendicular walls, clinging like a limpet to its rock, or to promenade on a shelf six inches wide above a frightful abyss.
There was also another party which wintered in the Olympics and had not yet come out when I was at Hoquiam. This was an expedition organized by the Seattle Press, consisting of five men and an Indian guide, who deserted when he discovered the purpose of the explorers to penetrate to the interior of the peninsula. They started from Port Angeles, on the north, with mules, boats, provisions, and a thorough outfit, proceeding up the Elwha River. To recount their experiences would require more space than can be allowed to it in this volume. They were in the mountains from December 7 to May 21, and came out at Aberdeen in a disreputable plight, plus hair and beard, but minus those articles of clothing considered indispensable to propriety. Their report concerning the nature of the country arid the minerals to be found in it agreed with that of the Gilmans, and they made many additions to the map of the country, naming peaks and lakes which hitherto had not been observed or named. Lake Crescent and Lake Sutherland are both near the Elwha River. Mount Brown is in that vicinity, Mount Seattle near the head of the Quinault River, while Mount Ferry, named after the first governor of the State, Mount Childs, Barnes, and Grady are elevations no longer without a "local habitation and a name."
Following the return of the Press expedition were half a dozen lesser efforts to learn the character of the Olympic Peninsula in all its parts, most of these being directed to the discovery of minerals, and all bringing in some specimens. A copper-mine discovered in Kitsap County east of and at the foot of the Olympic Range seemed to confirm the existence of copper higher up.
I have spoken of the Peninsula as unknown and unexplored. But it would ill become me to pass over other attempts made at a comparatively recent date to unveil the Olympian mystery. In 1881-82 Colonel Chambers, commanding at Fort Townsend, endeavored to construct a road from the fort into the mountains, the result of six months of toil being a trail to and across both branches of the Dungeness River, which was then abandon
