THE MUSEUM. 



75 



clear. The Gallatin river has a fall of 

 71 feet to the mile while the small 

 streams have more yet. The 



rivers teem with trout, white fish and 

 graylings. 



The Gallatin Valley is about ten 

 miles wide and in some places wider. 

 It begins almost all at once as the 

 river leaves the mountains, where the 

 slopes of the mountains reach the wa- 

 ter's edge or are perpendicular. Get- 

 ting up on a high point and looking 

 around over the valley and hills a per- 

 son has a picture like he often sees in 

 books. It looks like a large disk with 

 the bottom bulged and furrowedu while 

 the edge is scolloped. 



All around are mountains whose 

 peaks extend up high leaving a lower 

 line showing where the two mountain 

 peaks join; looking beyond peak after 

 peak arises. Looking over the valley 

 a person can trace the Gallatin river, 

 also see the Madison valley and far 

 beyond where the Jefferson flows 

 along, the mountains all joining far- 

 ther north. 



The hills at places have heaps of 

 loose stone lying on top of the ground 

 while the tops of some have boulders 

 piled up and lying around. At places 

 where the rocks crop out of the ground 

 the strata lies slanting showing an up- 

 heaval or a collapse of the surface. 



This is a good place for the collect- 

 or whether of animals or birds. We 

 have here the elk, black and white- 

 tailed deer, mountain sheep, lions, 

 lynx, bob cats, badgers ground hogs, 

 minks, martins, weasels, prairie dogs, 

 coyottes, wolves, antelopes, and 

 mountain rats. Of course a person 

 must go into the mountains for some 

 of these but does not need to go so 

 very far. 



I am told in summer a great many 

 birds come and breed here. I have 

 noticed some of the winter residents 

 that breed also. Those I have seen 

 are our Dusky, Gray, Ruffed and Com- 

 mon Starp-tailed Grouse, the Magpie, 

 Canada Jay, Crested Jay, Townsend's 

 Solitaire, Kingfisher, Eagle and Hawks 



of different kinds, besides Ducks and 

 Snipes that stay in the swamp along 

 the East Gallatin, whose waters are 

 warm. When the weather is very 

 cold the White Snowbird, Rosy Finch, 

 Snowy Owl and Bohemian Waxwing 

 come from the north. We also have 

 two kinds of squirrels. They are 

 small but cute and pretty. I have 

 noticed the Western Great Horned 

 Owl, also Screech and Short-eared 

 Owl. The Curlew breeds here, so do 

 Sandpipers of different kinds, numer- 

 ous Sparrows and Hawks and a num- 

 ber of Woodpeckers and both Red 

 and Yellow-shafted Flickers. 



I am watching the old nesting plac- 

 es of the Eagle and some Hawks and 

 expect to get some fine eggs. Clarke's 

 Crow is plenty here, but they breed 

 so early I don't know whether I will 

 be able to get their eggs or not. They 

 build in trees along the rocky places 

 and crags. The Gray Ruffed Grouse 

 goes up in the mountains to nest while 

 the Dusky comes down into the hills. 

 In winter the Duskies go up and the 

 Grays come down. 



We also have the snow-shoe rabbit, 

 the jack rabbit and the cotton-tail. I 

 killed one snow-shoe rabbit and it was 

 better eating than any of the other 

 rabbits. The jacks are white in win- 

 ter. 



Well, I will close for this time as 

 breakfast is about ready and we are 

 going to the mountains for logs. 

 Monday we were after logs and found 

 two porcupines in one tree, one was 

 very large but the other was smaller. 



The weather here this winter is 

 fine. We have very little snow in the 

 valley and hills but plent}^ in the 

 mountains. We have the nicest win- 

 ter in the history of Montana. The 

 snow melts most every day. The oth- 

 er week it was 4 degrees below zero. 

 In November for three days it was 

 cold; it was 40 degrees below zero, 

 but it is pleasant to live here. The 

 chinook comes over the mountains 

 from the southwest and the snow goes 

 real lively. Cordially yours, 



Amos Pyfer. 



