ON THE WAY TO THE YELLOWSTONE.
LIVINGSTON, MONTANA, June 22, 1892.
We left the city of St. Paul at 4.25 P.M. on the 20th, by the Northern
Pacific Railroad, and arrived here at 8 A.M. this morning. A section
on the sleeping-car had been previously engaged, and we found it and
the dining-room car attached to the train all that could be desired,
so that we thoroughly enjoyed the entire trip. Passing through the Bad
Lands was a wonderful experience. Great mountains of clay or stone, in
all sorts of grotesque shapes and of many colors, constantly attracted
our attention until we reached the Yellowstone River, which was higher
than it had been for many years. Here things began to look serious, as
frequently the dirty and rushing flood came near to the track, and
the rise of a foot or so would have caused a wash-out, and have
stopped our progress; but for many miles before we reached this
station, the engineer moved the train of ten cars very carefully, and
we were only two hours behind time. There has been a bridge burned
beyond this place, and some bad wash-outs are reported by passengers
coming East, who say that they had to travel around six miles on foot,
through a country infested with rattlesnakes, leaving their baggage
behind; but we expect that all will be clear on Monday, when we shall
have been through the park, and will be ready to go on from here West.
There was the usual crowd of "all sorts and conditions" of men on the
train--young ranchmen, bright eyed, intelligent, and alert, one of
them being an English lord, but I did not know this until he left the
car at a way station. All had tales to tell of life in these parts,
one of which was that the stage running from one of the stations at
which we stopped was "held up" three times last week, and the
passengers robbed. This town is a new one, with a lot of small wooden
houses and stores, but as the hotels did not look very attractive, we
took our breakfast on the dining-car attached to a train about to
start for Cinnabar, on a branch road, and an excellent meal we had.