THE STORY OF A STRANGE LAND. 453 



oiisly as before. The fire retreated, leaving great stretches of land 

 to its enemy, that it might concentrate its strength where its 

 strength was greatest. And the water steadily gained, for the 

 great ocean ever lay behind it. So for century after century they 

 wrestled with each other, the water, the fire, the snow, the ani- 

 mals, and the plants. But the fishes who had once lived in the 

 mountain torrents were no longer there. They had been boiled 

 and frozen, and in one way or another destroyed or driven away. 

 Now they could not get back. Every stream had its caiion, and 

 in each caiion was a waterfall so high that no trout could leap up. 

 Although they used to try it every day, not one ever succeeded. 



So it went on. A great many things happened in other parts 

 of the Avorld, America had been discovered and the colonies were 

 feeling their way toward the Pacific Ocean. And in the vanguard 

 was the famous expedition of Lewis and Clarke, which went over- 

 land to the mouth of the river Columbia. John Colter was a 

 hunter in this expedition, and by some chance he went across tlie 

 mountains on the old trail of the Nez Percys Indians which leads 

 across the Divide from the Missouri waters to those of the Colum- 

 bia. When he came back from the ISTez Perc«^s trail he told most 

 wonderful tales of what he had seen at the head of the Missouri. 

 There were cataracts of scalding water which shot straight up 

 into the air; there were blue ponds hot enough to boil fish ; there 

 were springs that came up snorting and steaming, and which 

 would turn trees into stone ; the woods were full of holes from 

 which issued streams of sulphur; there were canons of untold 

 depth with walls of ashes full of holes which let off steam like a 

 locomotive, and there were springs which looked peaceful enough, 

 but which at times would burst like a bomb. 



In short, every one laughed at Colter and his yarns, and this 

 place where all lies were true was familiarly known as " Colter's 

 Hell." But for once John Colter told the truth, and the truth 

 could not easily be exaggerated. But no one believed him. When 

 others who afterward followed him over the Nez Perces trail told 

 the same stories, people said they had been up to " Colter's Hell " 

 and had learned to lie. 



But, as time passed, other men told what they had seen, until, in 

 1870, a sort of official survey was made under the lead of Washburne 

 and Doane. This party got the general bearings of the region, 

 named many of the mountains, and found so much of interest 

 that the next year Dr. Hayden, the United States Geologist, sent 

 out a party for systematic exploration. The Hayden party came 

 up from Colorado on horseback, through dense and tangled for- 

 ests, across mountain torrents, and over craggy peaks. The story 

 of this expedition has been most charmingly told by its youngest 

 member, another John Coulter. Prof. Coulter was the botanist 



