226 SIR WILLIAM RAMSAY 



with a paint-like fluid of different colours of wonderful 

 brilliance and purity. It is as if a Titan's hand had 

 set out paints for a gigantic picture. They spent much 

 time over this ; Ramsay and Fitzgerald equally keen 

 on identifying the colouring matter and all wondering 

 and excited, finding interest everywhere. They had 

 been warned of the dangers of unfriendly Indians, and 

 that small parties were often " held up." They never 

 saw a redskin all the time in the park, and though one 

 day they felt they were being " shadowed " by two 

 rough-looking individuals, these proved in the end to 

 be two miners whose shyness had kept them back for 

 hours from making the simple request that their photo- 

 graphs might be taken to send back to their friends at 

 home. One night a bear came down and scared the 

 horses away, and it was a long morning's work to find 

 them. Another day there was a thunderstorm, and a 

 tree was struck within a hundred yards of where they 

 had taken shelter in a cave, but youth and high spirits 

 made light of such things, and to them all " the camp in 

 the Yellowstone " was one of the red-letter times of 

 their lives. 



Pat Buchanan left them at Livingstone on his way to 

 the district in which he meant to settle, and in 1897 the 

 Ramsay s visited him at his ranch there. 1 On the return 

 journey the rest of the camping party were joined by 

 Drs. Foster Morley, Plimpton and Rideal, members of 

 the junior chemical staff at University College, London. 



1 See page 152. 



