AMID WONDERS OF THE YELLOWSTONE PARK
It was toward the middle of August that Hugh and Jack and Joe, with
their little pack train, started southwest, to strike the Carroll
Road, to go to the place once known as Colter's Hell, and now as
the Yellowstone Park. Their animals carried only their provisions,
messkit and bedding, and a skin lodge which Hugh had purchased
from Fox Eye's wife. Their way led them through the beautiful
Gallatin Valley, crossing the surveyed line of the Northern Pacific
railroad, then being built westward, and then over the mountains
to the valley of the Yellowstone, which they followed up to the
cañon. Before they reached the Gallatin Valley they had seen plenty
of buffalo, and had killed one for fresh meat, while in the Valley
there were many antelope. In the Bridger Mountains, by which they
passed, elk and deer were abundant; and one morning in the trail
which they followed were seen the tracks of an enormous bear and
two small cubs.
In the mountain streams which they crossed, trout were abundant,
and they greatly enjoyed the delicious fish which were so easily
caught.
A wagon road had been built through the cañon into the Yellowstone
Park, and here a number of white people were travelling back and
forth, and wagons were hauling material for hotels and other
buildings that were to be put up near the Mammoth Hot Springs. They
reached these one night, and spent the next day wandering about
them, marveling at the floods of hot water which poured over the
many tiny falls, and deposited the lime which had built up the
terraces of what the people there called "the formations." From an
old German, Jack purchased three or four articles: a horse shoe, a
nail, and the twig of a tree which had been suspended in the water
until coated with a beautiful white covering of lime.
The next day they climbed the hill to the right and came into
a level park-like country, which they followed south. It was a
picturesque region, with grand mountains showing on every hand, yet
nearby, a green level meadow, spangled with wild flowers, and a
little further back dotted with clumps of pines and spruces, which
were very beautiful.
At every step there was something new to be seen: new birds,
new animals, and new scenery. The trail led up a fork of the
Gardiner River, and then, crossing over, struck one of the heads
of the Gibbon River, down which they passed, and then suddenly
found themselves in a country of hot springs, which steamed, and
sometimes threw up boiling water to a considerable height. This was
the recently discovered Norris Geyser Basin, and here they camped,
and spent the day walking about among the hot springs, which at
first were very awe-inspiring. In many of them there were old tree
trunks and branches of trees, which, when taken out and examined,
seemed to be partly turned to stone. Fine particles of a flinty
material seemed to have penetrated all the pores of the wood, and
while the branches were not hard, the woody matter in them seemed
gradually to be changing to stone. As they sat eating their supper
that night, Hugh said to Jack, "Well, son, I don't wonder that the
mountain men in old times used to call this Colter's Hell. It is
surely a place where the flames down below seem to be mighty close
to the surface of the earth."
"It makes me afraid," said Joe.
"Well," said Jack, "it does me too a little. This morning I was
afraid pretty nearly every minute that I'd fall through the ground
and get into hot water below."
The next morning they moved camp, and rode over toward the river
intending to look at the Grand cañon, and the wonderful falls of
which they had heard.
Although the Yellowstone Park had been known for more than ten
years, few people had as yet visited it. Nevertheless, they saw
a number of visitors, some travelling with teams, and some with
pack trains, and altogether the Park seemed quite a bustling
place. That night they camped on the head of Alum Creek, and the
next day, leaving their pack horses picketed and hobbled at the
camp, rode over to see the falls. They rode first down toward the
river, passing the Sulphur Mountain, a great barren hill, full of
hot springs and sulphur vents, about which much sulphur had been
deposited. Many fragments of the bright yellow mineral were strewn
on the ground, and at one place Hugh noticed where two or three
grass blades had fallen across one of the vents' and calling the
boys' attention to this, they all dismounted to look at it. About
these blades of grass, and on their slender heads, most delicate
and beautiful crystals of sulphur had collected. These were so
fragile that a little motion made them loose their hold, and drop
from the grass, or else break, so that it was impossible to carry
them away. Near here, at the foot of the hill, was a large spring,
six or eight feet in diameter, and boiling violently. The water
was sometimes thrown up eight or ten feet high, not in jets, but
seemingly by impulses from the center of the pool, so that the
spray was sent outward in all directions.
They then followed down the river for two or three miles. It was a
broad stream, swiftly-rushing yet smooth, and nowhere interrupted
by rocks or rapids until the upper falls were almost reached. Here
were short rough rapids and then the tremendous falls. The great
mass of dark water glided rather than plunged into the depths
below, and just below the crest of the cataract was broken into
white foam, which, further down changed to spray. The falls are
162 feet high, and clouds of white vapor constantly rose from the
water below, and hid the view. Looking down the stream, they had a
glimpse of the wonderful cañon below.
The roar of the falls was so tremendous that conversation was
impossible, and nothing was said; but presently they left the upper
falls and rode on north to the lower one. Here was repeated the
marvelous impression which they got from this tremendous body of
water falling 150 feet sheer to the great basin below, and from
under the mist cloud that hid the foot of the fall came out the
narrow green ribbon of the river, winding and twisting, hardly to
be recognized as a river, dwarfed by distance, and creeping with a
slow oily current. On either side the stream rose the walls of the
cañon, five or six hundred feet to the pine-fringed margin above.
Looking down the stream, Jack saw a cañon a thousand feet deep, and
perhaps twice as wide, extending for miles to the northward. Its
sides were curiously sculptured and carved into fantastic forms. In
one place a vertical cliff supported lofty cones of rock, ranged
side by side upon the same horizontal ledge along its face. Again,
a narrow buttress arose from the river's level in a series of
pinnacles and turrets overtopping one another, until the summit of
the cañon wall was reached. At one place that wall was so nearly
perpendicular that it seemed as though a stone dropped from the
edge of the cliff would fall at once into the water of the river.
In another, the decomposing rock had been eaten away above until
a talus of fallen rock and earth arose in a steep slope half way
to the top. But to Jack's mind the glory of the cañon was in its
color. The walls glowed with a vivid intense radiance which is
not less wonderful than beautiful. Browns and reds and pinks and
yellows, and delicate grays and pure whites had painted these hard
rocks with a wealth of coloring hardly to be described in words.
In the sun the cañon walls shone with brilliancy. When the clouds
passed over the sky they grew duller and softer, but were hardly
less beautiful. Down close to the river were the most vivid greens,
and in the mist which rose from the foot of the fall were seen,
when the sun was shining, all the hues of the rainbow.
The travellers sat long watching this wonderful sight, and then
pushing along the margin of the cañon, below the falls, walked out
on a projecting point of rock, and looked up and down the river.
The more they gazed, the more wonderful it seemed, the harder to
take it all in, and the harder to put into words.
On a pinnacle of rock, rising from the end of the point on which
they had walked, was a great nest, in which the boys noticed two
large and downy young birds. Flying up and down over the river,
sometimes low over the water, again far above the heads of those
who stood on the edge of the cañon, were great hawks--eagles,
Hugh afterward said they were, but Jack recognized them as
fish-hawks--and while they were standing there, one of these great
birds brought a fish to the nest, and tearing it to pieces with its
beak, gave the fragments to its greedy young. Jack noticed, also,
little sparrow-hawks flying about the edge of the cañon, and, far
below at the edge of the river, saw little birds flying from point
to point, which he thought must be dippers.
The whole day was spent here, for no one seemed to wish to return
to the camp; but at last, as the sun swung low, and the pangs
of hunger began to be felt, they returned to their horses, and
mounting them, were soon at camp once more.
The next morning they set out up the river to go to the lake. On
the way they passed two well known places. The Mud Volcano, a huge
hot spring of gray clay, which steamed, and bubbled, and thumped,
and sometimes spouted, throwing up its mud to a great height. Jack
in his mind compared the boiling mud to mush boiling in a kettle,
but as this pool of mud was fifty feet in diameter, the comparison
was not a good one. All about, the trees were splashed with mud,
which had dried on them, showing that at some time, not long
before, there had been an eruption. Nearby, on the hillside, was
a steam spring in a little cavern, which they had heard of as the
Devil's Workshop. From this cavern came constantly great volumes
of steam, while within it were heard hollow bubbling noises, which
sounded like the clang and clash of great pieces of machinery
turning. It was a mysterious place, and neither one of the three
cared to go very close to it. There were boiling springs and
sulphur vents hereabout in great plenty, and the place seemed an
uncanny one.
The way to the lake was attractive: it led through forests,
sometimes of living green, and at others killed by fire.
Occasionally they passed through pretty grassy meadows, and from
them had charming views of the river, which grew wider as they
approached the lake, and seemed to spread out over wide flats.
To the right the mountains rose sharply, forming the "Elephant's
Back," a thousand feet in height.
Presently they came to a broad opening, and saw before them the
lake. At the outlet the grass grew thick and rank, and in the
marshes, pond-holes and sloughs here, they saw many flocks of wild
ducks and geese; and sand-pipers and beach birds fed along the
shore. Some swans were seen, and a few great white pelicans.
Their fresh meat was now exhausted, and for a day or two they had
been living on trout, of which great numbers were caught in the
streams that they had crossed, for fish are abundant everywhere in
the mountains. When they made camp that night, Jack got out his
line, and cutting a pole, went down to the shore to catch some
fish, while Hugh and Joe made the fire.
Jack had hardly thrown his hook in the water when it was seized,
and he dragged a large fish to shore. As he was taking it off the
hook however, he noticed a bunch on its side, and after examining
it for a moment, cut into this bunch with his knife, and drew from
it a long white worm. He got a dozen trout, but all of them seemed
to be afflicted with this parasite, and finally putting up his line
he carried them to the fire, and showed them to Hugh. Both Hugh and
Jack agreed that these fish were not fit to eat, and that night
they supped on dried meat and back-fat.
As they had made camp that night they had noticed, just beyond
them, two white tents, and had seen some horses feeding near the
lake shore. Shortly after their supper, a man walked into the camp,
and after saluting them, sat down by the fire. A little talk showed
that he was a member of the geological survey that worked in the
Park, and he had been attracted to their camp by the fact that
they had an Indian lodge. He was a pleasant man, and seemed quite
willing to talk, and to answer all their questions, and very much
interested in his work. After he and Hugh had talked together for
a while, Jack ventured to ask some questions about the Park, and
especially about the place where they now were. "Won't you tell me,
sir," he said, "what you can about this big lake that we are on.
It looks to me awful big to be up here high in the mountains. Of
course I know it isn't anything like the Great Lakes; still it's
the largest lake I ever saw."
"It is a large lake," said their visitor, "for it contains about
150 square miles of water, and there is probably no lake in North
America of equal size at so great an elevation. You see, we are
about 7700 feet above the level of the sea. Roughly speaking, the
shape of the lake is like that of an open hand which lacks the
first and middle finger; the wrist is the northern end of the lake,
the west arm answers to the outstretched thumb, and the south and
southeast arms to the ring and little finger. If you are going to
travel around it, you will feel that it is a lovely sheet of water.
It is very picturesque, and in fair weather it lies here like a
great sapphire beneath the unclouded sky. But when the storms come
up, and the wind rolls down along the mountain sides, the lake can
get up a great sea, and one would not care to be out on it. But in
fair weather it is very beautiful--to me the loveliest spot in all
the park. And what is more, I never get tired of it; the more I see
it, and the more familiar I become with its scenery, the lovelier
it is. From every promontory and every bay, and from every
hillside above it, one has always a different view, and each view
has a charm that is all its own."
The geologist sat there long with them that night, talking to them
in a most interesting way about the Park and the geysers and the
cañons. He told them that all this country was volcanic in origin,
and that for some reason or other, which he did not know, the heat
still remained close to the surface of the earth; and that this was
the reason that there were so many hot springs and geysers here.
"It's one of the most interesting regions in the world," he said,
"and one of the most beautiful. As yet, people do not appreciate
it. Many people do not even know that it exists; but the time
will come when thousands will gather here each summer, from all
quarters of the world, to see its beauties. Geologically, it is
most interesting, and already geologists from all over the world
are coming to see it, or are making plans to come. I predict that
the time is coming when the Yellowstone Park will be acknowledged
to be the most wonderful place in the world."
As the visitor rose to go, he looked about the lodge and said,
"So this is an Indian lodge, is it? I've often read about them,
but this is the first one I've ever seen. They seem warm and
comfortable, but are they not rather smoky?"
"No," said Hugh, "they're not smoky; but you must remember they're
not made to stand up in; people in the lodge are expected to sit
down, or to lie down. If there's a fire burning, and no wind
blowing, or if the air is damp and heavy, smoke often gathers in
the top of the lodge, and a man standing in it finds about his
head more than he likes. Stoop down a little bit and you will see
that the smoke no longer troubles you." The geologist did as Hugh
advised, and seemed to be greatly interested by the discovery that
it was as he had said; and then bidding them good night, he left
the lodge.