80 WALKS AND TALKS. 



regions on the surface of the earth. It lies on the great con- 

 tinental divide at a mean altitude of six thousand feet, and 

 includes mountain summits rising to ten and twelve thousand 

 feet about twice the altitude of Mount Washington, and 

 covered, of course, with perpetual snow. Within the tract is 

 the Yellowstone Lake, which lies 7,427 feet above sea-level. 

 Two or three miles west of this is Two Ocean Pond, lying on 

 the water-shed. On the east, the drainage from this pond 

 passes into the Yellowstone Lake and Kiver, and thence into 

 the Missouri and the Gulf of Mexico. On the west, the same 

 pond drains into Shoshone Lake, the Snake and Columbia 

 rivers and the Pacific Ocean. The Yellowstone and Madison 

 are the chief rivers of the reservation, the first flowing west to 

 form the Missouri, and the other north to a navigable tribu- 

 tary of the same. The upper Madison is also known as the 

 Firehole river. Gardiner's river is an important tributary of 

 the Yellowstone, flowing north, and making its junction on the 

 northern boundary of the Park. Some of the loftiest moun- 

 tains of the interior overlook the Park on all sides. On the 

 east, are the two ranges of the Shoshone Sierra ; on the w r est, 

 the Gallatin Range ; on the south, the Red Mountain Range 

 and the Pitchstone Plateau; on the north, a belt of "peaks" 

 rising ten and eleven thousand feet high. These mountains, 

 like nearly the whole surface of the Park, are composed of 

 volcanic rocks. The Yellowstone, after passing two falls, re- 

 spectively 162 and 350 feet, flows through a caiion nine miles 

 long, which has been thus described: 



" For a mile away, the sides are formed of slopes from 

 which rise vast battlements, turrets, pinnacles, alone or in 

 clusters, of tall conical spires; some are of basalt, some of 

 limestone [this is probably an error] ; they rise through slopes 

 part clay and part broken silicates and limestone. On this 

 mass of material nature has lavished her wealth of colors with 

 a spendthrift hand. The taller rocks of ruddy browns or 

 Pompeian red melt away in the debris from which they spring, 

 to rich yellows, fading below, to cool grays in exquisite grada- 

 tion. Here and there are rocks of a red like claret lees; 



