* 





37 



of the Owl Creek, Shoshone, -and Wind Eiver ranges, 8,000 to 12,000 

 feet in height. Long foot-hills project at intervals, reaching far out into 

 plain, and between these the mountain-side is cleft by deep canons, with 

 nearly vertical walls, in which fine sections of the underlying rocky 

 strata are exposed in many places. The bluffs are often Bteep and 

 broken by erosion into remarkable shapes, and when they consist of the 

 so-called " red-beds," as they do in places where the bright-colored marls, 



clays, and sandstones of the Jurassic and Triassic series c e to the 



surface, the effect is most striking. Eed, white, purple, yellow, and other 

 colored strata, arranged in sharply-defined layers, are to be seen, eroded 

 into enormous cones and spires, compounded of multitudes of smaller 

 ones, grading off in perfect symmetry at successive heights for miles, 

 banded everywhere with the conspicuous ribbon-like stripes and with 

 scarcely a vestige of plant life. Over nearly the whole area to the 

 northward, from the base of the Owl Creek range through a succession 

 of high benches, bad lands, and shifting sand hills, without water, trees, 



or grass, there is a picture of grand desolation which offers but little 



to attract the botanist or to encourage the future agriculturist. The 

 , southwest side, on the contrary, is well watered by tributaries of Wind 

 Eiver and the numerous branches of Little Wind River and the two 

 1*01)0 Agies. The streams, skirted with a few trees and shrubs, How 

 through rich, alluvial bottoms, here and there expanding into pictur- 



■ 



esque little lakes. Vegetation is everywhere abundant. Above 6,000 

 feet the long 4 , green slopes are decorated with spruce, pine, and poplars, 

 massed in dense forests or grouped around beautiful open parks, up to 

 where the snow glistens under an August sun among the somber, naked 



rocks at the summit. 



This difference in character between the two sides of the valley is due, 

 in a great measure, to difference in elevation of the ranges. On the 

 Wind Eiver Mountains, rising 10,000 to 12,000 feet above the level of the 

 sea, the snow remains throughout the year, melting gradually and sup- 

 plying innumerable springs and rivulets which distribute their waters 

 down the slopes and form the creeks and rivers below, while in the Owl 

 Creek range, but 8,000 or 0,000 feet high, it melts early, and with a 

 meager amount of rainfall, the vegetation is left to perish in the hot- 

 test part of summer. On the side where a system of natural irrigation 

 is thus maintained the surface is protected by the conservative action 



of plants, and, on the other, the erosive forces go en, unrestrained to 



effect the most gigantic results. 



As we proceed on our march over the divide and up Wind Eiver the 

 region becomes more uneven and extremely diversified in outline, em- 

 bracing many novel and interesting features, which give it a character 

 quite peculiar, though not altogether prepossessing. The Wind Eiver 

 Valley is the site of an ancient lake basin, and for a distance of from 5 

 to 15 miles on each side of the river below the mouth of STorth Fork 

 the surface is composed of a thick layer of Tertiary sediments, which 



