SHEEP, ANTELOPE, AND MOOSE 279 



large basin, and the prospect is that this basin 

 will ultimately become a lake of considerable 

 proportions. The river is very muddy below 

 the slide, and one morning while we were 

 camped there we found it had fallen nearly 

 three inches, the result of a large body of earth 

 having been rushed into it by the slide. 



From our rendezvous on the Gros Ventre my 

 route lay down the Gros Ventre to Slate Creek, 

 thence up Slate Creek, over Mt. Leidy ridge 

 past Leidy Lake, down to Spread Creek, over 

 another ridge past Lilly Lake to the Buffalo 

 Fork, and thence northward through the Wy- 

 oming game refuge to Yellowstone National 

 Park, which I was to enter at Snake River sta- 

 tion and traverse its width northward to Gardi- 

 ner, Montana. 



Leek kept me company to Mt. Leidy. On 

 Slate Creek we passed a soldiers' camp, where 

 Captain Dow and Lieutenant Rierdon, with 

 half a dozen privates, made their headquarters 

 while mapping mountain trails for military 

 purposes. Beyond a maze of fallen timber on 

 the slope of Mt. Leidy Leek turned back, to 

 return to his camp on the Gros Ventre, while I 

 rose to the summit of the pass, covered with the 

 snow of recent storms. The last reach of the 

 ascent was abrupt and there was no trail to fol- 



