266 PROCEEDINGS OF THE COTTESWOLD CLUB 



was formed in a pan of water left exposed to the sky ; 

 and a good fire of pine-logs was not so much a luxury as 

 a necessity. The main reason was, of course, as Tyndall's 

 researches have proved, the absence of water-vapour in the 

 atmosphere ; but it must also be remembered that the 

 whole region is more than 7,000 feet above sea-level, and 

 we were within easy distance of the great Teton Mountains, 

 with their summits covered with perpetual snow. 



Our route lay along basaltic plains, covered with prairie 

 grass and " sage-brush," under low ranges of trachytic 

 buttes, and across the great Snake River teeming with 

 excellent trout, from one to two pounds weight. About 

 three cwt. of these are netted every day during the 

 season, and sent off in waggons to the depot at Beaver 

 Canon, there to be put on rail for Salt Lake City. At 

 last we came to the summit of the Great Divide, and drank 

 from a little moss-covered spring, the water of which is 

 the first contribution sent down from that region to the 

 vast Atlantic Ocean. 



We followed it down to the Madison River, which was 

 here formerly lost in an immense lake, until the water cut 

 for itself a deep narrow gorge well known in those parts 

 as the Madison Gap. No vestige of the lake now remains; 

 its bed is covered with extensive pine woods, through 

 which the track (I am sorry that I cannot call it a road) 

 conducted us to the foot of a steep chff, where a passable 

 means of ascent had just been completed by the rough 

 Engineers employed by the American Government. 

 Almost as soon as we reached the top of this, I saw 

 right in front of us a white cloud rising from a point 

 about four miles off, resembling that wdiich generally 

 covers the top of Vesuvius. It was my first view of a 

 real geysir in action, greeting us with a well-sustained 

 royal salute; and though I watched several other eruptions 

 of it before I left the district, none struck me so vividly 

 as the magnificent out-burst seen from Look-out Cliffs. 



