Memories of a Bear Hunter 



fork of the Yellowstone, now known as Lamar 

 River, to Soda Butte Creek, and thence up that 

 stream to the divide between the east fork of 

 Clark's Fork of the Yellowstone. At Soda Butte 

 Lake we camped for a while, getting some splendid 

 trout, and here I killed the first bear seen on the 

 trip. Later we stopped at Lake Abundance, an 

 immense spring of unknown depth, which forms 

 the headwaters of Shell Creek, a tributary of the 

 Lamar River. Within five hundred yards of this 

 lake is the head of the Rosebud River, which runs 

 north to the Yellowstone. My second bear was 

 killed near this divide. 



On the 25th of August, we crossed over the 

 divide to the Clark's Fork watershed, and for a 

 few days camped at a famous salt lake 56 used by 

 the elk and deer. Game here was very abundant, 

 especially elk in the pine timber country to the 

 north of this lick. 



Our next camp was at the mouth of Crandall 

 Creek, at the head of the noted Clark's Fork 

 Canon. This canon is about twelve miles in 

 length, with vertical walls of red granite for the 

 entire distance. As the river goes on during the 

 twelve miles of its course through this canon, the 

 latter grows deeper and deeper, until at its end 

 the walls are 1,500 feet in height. Below the end 



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