PEALE] INTEODUCTION EARLY EXPLORATIONS. 67 



of Montana. Mr. IsT. P. Langforcl, formerly superintendent of the Park, 

 in a private letter to tlie writer says : 



An account of their expedition was written by David E. Folsom himself, and his 

 partner (Cook) sent it to his brother for perusal, and it seemed so wonderfnl that the 

 proprietors of the Lakeside Monthly, of Chicago, published it in May or June, 1870. 

 ifot knowing who the author was, the publishers gave the name of Mr. Cook as the 

 author. Mr. Cook was much chagrined by this blunder, which deprived Mr. Folsom 

 of the honor due him, and did all he could to set the matter right. 



In Raymond's Mining' Statistics West of the Eocky Mountains (Wash- 

 ington, 1870), in the chapter on Gallatin County, Montana, page 312, 

 occurs the following paragrajih : 



Parties who have visited this terra incognita [Yellowstone Basin] report it replete 

 with grand and wonderful phenomena — crevasses of stupendous depth, petrified 

 forests, plains of lava and brimstone, geysers spouting boiling water fifty to seventy ■ 

 feet high, &c,., but their reports are too indefinite to serve for reliable description. 



In 1870 the Washburn party explored the region, and two of the 

 members of the party described its wonders in magazine articles pub- 

 lished in the spring of 1871. Mr. N. P. Langford's illustrated articles 

 api)eared in the May and June numbers of Scribner's Magazine, 1871, 

 and Mr. Walter Trumbull's description in the Overland Monthly, June, 



1871. Lieutenant Doane, of the Second Cavalry, who accompanied the 

 Washburn expedition in command of the escort, also made an official 

 report of the trip to General Hancock. 



During the summers of 1871 and 1872 the Geological Survey of the 

 Territories made their explorations of the Park, and gave to the world 

 the first scientific account of the region. One of the results of the ex- 

 ploration of 1871 was the setting aside of the region including the vari- 

 ous spring areas, as a National Park. 



From 1872 to 1878, the time of our third visit, the Park was visited 

 by many parties, and for a further list of publications relating to it the 

 reader is referred to the bibliography appended to this report. 



A glance at the map of the Park will show that within its limits we 

 have the principal sources of two of our largest rivers, viz., the Mis- 

 souri and the Snake Eiver or Lewis' Fork of the Columbia. The largest 

 portion of the Park lies to the eastward of the Continental Divide or 

 water-shed. As to its geology, the reader is referred to the more detailed 

 rei)ort of Mr. Holmes. Suffice it to say here that it is mainly volcanic, 

 rhyolitic rocks being spread over its surface, forming immense plateaus 

 in most i^laces. The elevation is such that it is not suited for farming 

 purposes. In 1871 there were several mornings in which the tempera- 

 ture fell below the freezing point. August 1 we had ice one-sixteenth of 

 an inch in thickness in our campontheEast Fork of the Fire Hole Eiver, 

 and on the 10th, on Yellowstone Lake, at sunrise, the thermometer re- 

 corded 15^o. In July the six o'clock temperature ranged from 42° to 

 .50°. The noon temperature through the summer ranged from 50° to 

 78°. We had almost the same weather in 1872.' In the last of Jnne, 



1872, at Fort Ellis, we had a snow storm which whitened the surface 

 where the day before flowers were in bloom. In 1878 we had snow 

 storms on September 8, 23, and 24, and on October 1, 13, and 14. On the 

 10th of Septeml)er the temperature was 23°, on the 23d it was 18°, and 

 on the 20th, 10°. These temperatures were taken early in the morning. 

 Mr. P. W. Norris, in his report for 1878, gives the average temperature 

 at sunrise for July at 57° and for noon at 80°. For August he gives the 

 average at sunrise .at 44° and at noon 78°. In Sei)tember he says it was 

 39° at sunrise and 01° at noon. The following table, compiled from his 



