Art. XV.— The so-called Two-Ocean Pass. (Plates III, 



IV.) 



By F. V. Hayden. 



This somewliat singular geograpMcal feature has never yet been 

 clearly explained, though it is noted on some of our maps as far back as 

 1851. It was known to the old trappers of a still earlier period, and they 

 had a tradition of its existence. So far as I can ascertain, the first pub- 

 lished notice of it is found in Capt. W. F. Eaynolds's Report of the Ex- 

 ploration of the Yellowstone in 1868, page 11. Captain R. writes as 

 follows : 



" Bridger also insisted that iminediately west of the point at which 

 we made our final effort to penetrate this singular valley (Yellowstone) 

 there is a stream of considerable size which divides and flows down 

 either side of the water shed, thus discharging its waters into both the 

 Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Having seen this phenomenon on a small 

 scale in the highlands of Maine, where a rivulet discharges a portion of 

 its waters into the Atlantic and the remainder into the St. Lawrence, 

 I am prepared to concede that Bridger's ' Two Ocean river ' may be a 

 verity." 



Again, Captain Jones, of the United States Engineers, in his report of 

 a Reconnaissance of Northwestern Wyoming, gives a brief description of 

 this pass, which attracted some attention at the time : 



" At this divide occurs a phenomenon, probably the one referred to by 

 the early trappers as the ' Two Ocean Pass.' Marching at the head of 

 the column where the trail approached the summit, I noticed that the 

 riband of meadow, in which the stream lay we had been following, sud- 

 denly dropped away in front of us with a contrary slope. I could still 

 see the stream threading it, and for a moment could scarcely believe my 

 eyes. It seemed as if the stream was running up over this divide and 

 down into the Yellowstone behind us. A hasty examination in the lace 

 of the driving storm revealed a phenomenon less startling perhaps, but 

 still of remarkable interest. A small stream coming down from the 

 mountains to our left I found separating its waters in the meadow where 

 we stood, sending one portion into the stream ahead of us, and the otlier 

 into the one behind us— the one following its destiny through the Snake 

 and Cohimbia Rivers back to its home in the Pacific ; the other, througli 

 the Yellowstone and Missouri, seeking the foreign Avater of tlie Atlantic 

 by one of the longest voyagesknown to running water. On the Snake 



