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NEW
YORK TIMES – NEW YORK
DECEMBER
18, 1892
A
NEW GLACIAL DISTRICT – DISCOVERIES MADE IN IDAHO BY TWO WORLD’S FAIR
AGENTS
Boise
City, Idaho, Dec. 17 – James Wendall and Lycurgus Sarsfield, two
Boston scientists have returned to this city from the eastern part of
Idaho County, where they had been investigating the reported discovery
of several glaciers and glacial lakes.
F.B. Schmuhorn, an agent of World’s Fair Commissioner Wells,
was the discoverer of the surprising phenomena, and the scientists’
reports agree with the description given by Schmuhorn.
Mr.
Wendall said that he and his companions passed over miles of territory
that had never been marked by the footprints of modern man though the
discovery of peculiar human and animal bones led them to believe that at
some period prehistoric bands of savages had made that unknown land
their habitation.
Continuing,
Mr. Wendall said that the silence of the dark gorges through which they
passed was appalling. Animals
were scarce, and in some instances the deer were so fearless that they
would allow the explorers to come within a dozen feet of them.
The grandeur of the scenery, Mr. Wendall said, was unexcelled
anywhere in the known world. The
two men climbed one of the eleven high peaks that are not marked upon
the carefully compiled maps, and as they ascended its precipitous slopes
discovered many ledges of low-grade gold and silver ore.
The
eleven peaks were snow-capped, their summits towering far above the line
of perpetual snow. The
glacial field extended 2,000 feet above the snow line.
In area it was nearly as large as the Alpine glacial field, but
not so deep. The ice was
dense, but generally as clear as crystal.
Beneath it could be seen a series of fifteen glacial lakes.
After
securing many specimens of the flora, fossil fauna, and minerals of the
ghostly region together with a sack full of the honey-combed human
bones, the naturalists returned to civilization via the town of Shoup.
Old
settlers say the places visited by Wendall and Sarsfield have not been
previously explored b y prospectors because they were the haunts of
murderous Indians for many years. Several
miners who went out toward the snowy peaks never returned, and many
weird tales of blood were related of the unknown land.
During
the last few years numerous parties have attempted to reach the distant
mountains but as they were mounted they could not penetrate the rough
country. Wendall and
Sarsfield were on foot and they devoted seven weeks to the interesting
trip. Three of the mineral
specimens secured by Sarsfield are of good tin ore.
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