196 WILLIAM H. EMMONS 



The differences in the constitution of the crystalline schists are too 

 slight to find expression in topographic form. 



Glaciation. — The effects of glacial erosion are conspicuous in the 

 Snowy Mountains. The streams head in typical glacial amphitheaters, 

 sharp and clear cut. On the floors of these amphitheaters in rock 

 basins are occasional lakes. In this part of the valleys drift is thin 

 or absent and at many places the rocks are polished or striated. 

 Lower down in the mountains, usually three or four miles below the 

 sources of the streams, the floors of the canyons are covered with 

 drift which at many places occurs as knobs or hillocks from ten to 

 forty feet high. Lakes and kettles within the morainal belt are 

 comparatively rare. 



Culture. — In some years a five-stamp mill is operated at Cowles 

 Post-Ofhce during a part of the summer and a number of prospectors 

 do assessment work. As soon as the snow becomes too deep for 

 easy travel, the country is almost deserted until the following spring. 

 A wagon road connects Livingston with Cowles. From there trails 

 lead southeast to Cook City and to the mines around Horseshoe 

 Mountain. In the early 90's this area was the scene of considerable 

 mining excitement, and a camp of a hundred or more houses, known 

 as Independence, was built at the junction of Basin Creek and Boulder 

 River. A mill was installed at this point and ore was hauled by wagon 

 from the Independence mine in Haystack Basin. The camp was 

 soon deserted, but the name is sometimes used for the camp at Cowles 

 Post-Ofihce, about a mile east of the old camp. 



OUTLINE OF GENERAL GEOLOGY 



Pre-Cambrian gneisses and schists. — The oldest rocks within 

 this area form a crystalline complex consisting in the main of crenu- 

 lated and intensely folded granite-gneiss and mica-schist. The gneiss 

 is at most places coarse-grained, though medium or fine-grained 

 facies are common. The gneiss is composed of feldspar, quartz, 

 biotite, and muscovite, with hornblende and magnetite as accessory 

 minerals. Like minerals are arranged in laminae giving the gneiss 

 its banded appearance. 



Traversing the gneiss in all directions are streaks of dark mica- 

 schists varying in width from less than an inch to more than fifty 



