PROCEEDINGS OF THE COTTESWOLD CLUB 263 



feet above the plateau, the best way into it will obviously 

 be that by which the rivers flow out of it ; and that is on 

 the N. and N.W. side. On the S. we have, as shown on 

 the map, the great range of the Tetons and the Wind 

 River Mountains. On the E. the Absaroka range forms a 

 barrier rather difficult to get over ; while the two chief 

 rivers which drain the plateau, the Madison and the 

 Yellowstone, have cut for themselves gaps through the 

 Snowy Mountains and the Gallatin range on the N., 

 which, like breaches in the walls of a strong fortress, 

 afford a com[)aratively easy ingress to assailants. There 

 is now, I believe, a branch line from the Northern Pacific 

 Railroad running up the valley of the Yellowstone to 

 Cinnabar, a settlement just within the N.W. boundary of 

 the Park ; and even stage-coaches (so-called) run from 

 this point to the hot springs and Geysirs, where hotels, 

 whisky saloons, and such-like products of American 

 civilisation, are developing themselves in profusion. I am 

 thankful to say that none of these nuisances existed in 

 1882. A traveller had really to "travail" then, more or 

 less "heavy-laden" (I chose the latter and lighter con- 

 dition). The nearest point accessible by railwav was 

 Beaver Caiion in Montana, on a branch line running from 

 Ogden to Virginia City, a mining centre about 200 miles 

 W. of the Park. As Ogden is on the main line of the 

 Central Pacific Railroad, and as I was coming back from 

 San Francisco, it was easy to take a ride on this branch 

 line to the depot at Beaver Canon, from which a drive of 

 about 140 miles would take me into the district I wished 

 to see. 



A few out of the many points of geological interest on 

 the route from Cheyenne, where the ascent o[ the Rockies 

 begins, to Beaver Canon may be noted in passing. 



I. — Iron Mountain, near Laramie, l^ mile long, 1,200 

 feet high, — a solid mass of very pure magnetite, containing 

 72 per cent, of iron, [specimen shown]. This is not 

 R2 



