Big Game in the Rockies 



erally demand, we fairly enter Pryor's Gap, 

 and there, in a beautiful amphitheater, we 

 again make camp. This evening we must 

 have trout for supper, so all hands go to 

 work, and we are soon rewarded with a fine 

 mess of trout from the head waters of Pryor's 

 Creek. 



The next day, as we reach the summit of 

 the gap, one of the most beautiful views in 

 the country opens out. The great main range 

 of the Rocky Mountains stretches before us, 

 its rugged, snow-capped peaks glistening in 

 the morning sun, and we long to be there, 

 but many a long mile still intervenes, and 

 forty-four miles of desert has to be crossed 

 to-day. This is always an arduous undertak- 

 ing. It is monotonous in the extreme, and men 

 and animals are sure to suffer for want of good 

 water, for after leaving Sage Creek on the 

 other side of the gap, there is no water to be 

 had until Stinking Water River* is reached. 



* Bancroft, in his account of the early explorations of Wyoming, 

 refers to this river as follows : " It is a slander to use this non- 

 descriptive name for an inoffensive stream. The early trappers took it 

 from the Indians, who, in their peculiar fashion, called it 'the river 

 that ran by the stinking water,' referring to bad-smelling hot springs 

 on its banks." 



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