Decbmbkr 13, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



793 



Lyman B. Sperry, of Bellvue, Ohio, became 

 interested in the matter and determined to 

 organize a party for exploration. In July 

 last the party, consisting of Dr. Sperry; 

 Mr. A. L. Sperry, of Owatouna, Minn.; Mr. 

 E. R. Shepard, of Minneapolis, and the 

 -writer, with guides, pack animals and camp 

 equipage, entered the mountains. I can 

 best convey an idea of the region by follow- 

 ing somewhat in detail the movements of 

 the party. 



The Great JSTorthern road crosses the 

 mountains about forty miles south of the 

 international boundary, following on the 

 western side' of the divide the Middle Fork 

 of the Flathead Eiver. Twenty miles from 

 the summit, at Two Medicine pass, is Bel- 

 ton station. Here there falls into the Fork 

 a large and rapid mountain creek. It 

 comes from McDonald Lake, three miles 

 away in the mountains northward. From 

 station to lake there is a mountain road 

 over which a buckboard travels as often as 

 tourists call for its service. The lake is 

 already much resorted to, since its waters 

 afford most excellent fishing and its shore 

 unexcelled camping places. A small steam- 

 er makes regular trips over the fifteen miles 

 of deeply blue water. The lake has a depth 

 of twelve hundred or more feet in some 

 parts and its surface is thirty-four hundred 

 feet above sea level. The mountains along 

 the sides of the lake are covered with pines 

 to the summit. Near the northern end are 

 seV'eral mountains of greater altitude, their 

 summits rising above timber line and cov- 

 ered with great snow fields. The most 

 prominent of these mountains have been 

 named Mt. Lottie Stanton, Mt. Brown, Mt. 

 Edwards and Mt. Sperry. 



At the northern end of the lake several 

 cabins have been erected and several pack- 

 ers and guides have established themselves 

 to provide horses and other necessaries for 

 travel. Our party, starting from this point, 

 made its first essay into a small lateral 



valley discovered by a prospector sent out 

 by Dr. Sperry a year ago. In June last 

 Dr. Sperry penetrated the valley and found 

 the avalanches falling frequently and such 

 masses of snow upon the ground as to pre- 

 clude any careful survey or any mountain 

 climbing. The valley is called Avalanche 

 Basin and is twelve miles from Lake McDon- 

 ald, eight miles northward along McDonald 

 Creek, thence four miles eastward to the 

 main divide. The Basin is three miles long 

 by one mile wide, much of its area filled 

 with a delightful lake. Our attention was 

 particularly drawn to this valley, in connec- 

 tion with our hunt for glaciers, because the 

 lake had that peculiar milky appearance so 

 characteristic of glacial water. In the 

 vallej'- we spent two weeks. A transit in- 

 strument had been packed in, and by means 

 of it we measured carefully the heights of 

 the surrounding mountains. The most 

 prominent of them was found to be from 

 twenty-eight hundred to five thousand feet 

 above the surface of the lake, making the 

 loftiest between nine and ten thousand feet 

 above the sea. On every side the evidences 

 of former glacial action on an immense 

 scale were to be found. The strata, of gray 

 and greenish shales and red slates for the 

 most part, dip to the northwest. On the 

 south side of the valley the exposed edges 

 are scored and polished beautifully. Be- 

 hind each ' sheep back ' is a dazzling little 

 pool of mountain water. To this series of 

 pools we gave the name of Terrace Pools. 

 Eastward from these pools is a slope which 

 has been ploughed over and over by the an- 

 cient glacier and is now yearly harrowed 

 by the avalanches. We twice made the as- 

 cent of the mountain at this place, reaching 

 a point over nine thousand feet above sea 

 level. From this point, at the foot of a still 

 higher and very precipitous mountain peak, 

 looking northward can be seen numberless 

 peaks of the main range, while westward is 

 the very distinct secondary range which 



