262 SCIENCE SKETCHES. 



Columbia. John Colter was a hunter in this ex- 

 pedition. By some chance he went across the 

 mountains on the old trail of the Nez Perces 

 Indians, which leads across the Divide from the 

 Missouri waters to those of the Columbia. When 

 he came back from the Nez Perces trail, he told 

 most wonderful tales of what he had seen at the 

 head of the Missouri. There were cataracts of 

 scalding water which shot straight up into the air ; 

 there were blue ponds hot enough to boil fish; 

 there were springs that came up snorting and 

 steaming, and which would turn trees into stone; 

 the woods were full of holes from which issued 

 streams of sulphur; there were canons of untold 

 depth, with walls of ashes full of holes which let off 

 steam like a locomotive, and there were springs 

 which looked peaceful enough, but which at times 

 would burst like a bomb. 



Every one laughed at Colter and his yarns, and 

 this place where all lies were true was familiarly 

 known as " Colter's Hell." But for once John 

 Colter told the truth, and the truth could not 

 easily be exaggerated. But no one believed him. 

 When others who afterward followed him over the 

 Nez Perces trail told the same stories, people said 

 they had been up to " Colter's Hell " and had 

 learned to lie. 



But, as time passed, other men told what they 

 had seen, until, in 1^70), a sort of official survey 

 was made under the lead of Washburne and Doane. 

 This party got the general bearings of the region, 

 named many of the mountains, and found so much 

 of interest that the next year Dr. Hayden, the 



