PROCEEDINGS OF THE COTTHSWOLD CLUB 265 



it must have formed an immense inland sea of fresh 

 water, Hke Lake Ontario, 300 miles long and 180 miles 

 broad, fed by streams from glaciers which came down to 

 the very edge of the water ; and a flat beach was formed, 

 as usual, all round the margin of the lake. As the water 

 supply failed, evaporation reduced the size of the lake to 

 its present level and limits ; not continuously, but with 

 pauses at regular intervals (caused by the relation between 

 the rate of water-supply and loss by evaporation), each 

 marked by formation of one of the lower terraces on the 

 margin. 



From Ogden I went northwards along a narrow-gauge 

 line, newly made, to Beaver Canon, a small settlement on 

 the outskirts of civilisation, or perhaps (to speak truly) a 

 little beyond them. The inhabitants of the place, when 

 they were not eating, drinking, sleeping, or swearing, were 

 engaged in "handling lumber"; i.e., felling pines and 

 sawing them up into logs and boards for building houses, 

 and shingles for roofing them. From thence I started for 

 a drive of about 140 miles to the Geysir Basins on the 

 Firehole River in the National Park ; my companions 

 being a couple of the lumber-men, who turned out to be 

 good guides, not very profound philosophers, and excellent 

 friends. We went in a four-wheeled conveyance, drawn 

 by tzvo tough and active little horses, but realising in other 

 respects that wonderful " one-horse shay" described by 

 Wendell Holmes, more nearly than I thought possible in 

 this imperfect world. Nothing could break that trap 

 down ; it was all good ash, lance-wood, and iron ; and 

 after any amount of knocking about over boulders and 

 and pine-logs, into and out of ditches, and through rivers, 

 it brought us back to Beaver Canon as sound as ever, 

 except a slight " set " in one of the axles. 



The radiation through the pure dry air in those regions 

 is remarkably free. By day the heat of the August sun 

 was almost tropical : at night more than half an inch of ice 



