GA^^IETT.] TOPOGRAPHY SNAKE RIVER. 469 



course from the divide to the Lakes Beulah and Hering is very quiet, 

 with a gentle current through grassy meadows, but from the point of 

 its emergence from the former of these lakes, it becomes a brawling, tur- 

 bulent stream, broken by cataracts and falls, from which it has received 

 its name. These falls, which succeed one another at short intervals, 

 have heights respectively of 12, 6, 12, 40, 20, and 30 feet. Finally, at a 

 point but three or four miles above where the stream debouches into 

 Falls River Basin, occur the Great Falls. These, which are close to- 

 gether, consist of two, each having a clear leap of over 20 feet, closely 

 followed by a third of 47 feet, below which are two smaller ones. The 

 total descent is 140 feet, my measurements agreeing very closely with 

 those of Professor Bradley.* 



SNAKE RIVER. 



At the south boundary of the Park the Snake divides into two 

 branches, the eastern one of which continues to bear the name of the 

 main stream, while the other, which heads in Shoshone Lake, bears the 

 name of Lewis or Lake Fork. The former stream, which is somewhat 

 the larger of the two, heads in several large branches among high hills 

 and mountains to the eastward. The ultimate head of the maiu branch 

 is southeast of the Forks, among the mountains on the course of 

 Buffalo Fork of the Snake, in a section of country not yet surveyed. 

 Another, known as Barlow's Fork, heads among the high, timbered 

 hills south of Yellowstone Lake, while another, Heart River, heads in 

 neart Lake at the base of the Red Mountains. The courses of all these 

 streams are in narrow, canon-like valleys, closely hemmed in by the 

 mountains. 



Heart Lake, the head of one of the principal branches of the Snake, 

 is a beautiful little gem, lying amid dense forests at tlie eastern base of 

 Mount Sheridan, the highest peak of the Red Mountains. It is about 3 

 miles long by 1^ in width, covers 3 square miles, and is of a very irreg- 

 ular shape, the resemblance in form to a heart being very slight. 



The lake has several small tributaries, most of them from the north 

 and west. One of the principal of them^ called Witch Greek, heads in 

 Red Mountain and enters the lake near the northwestern corner. On 

 this creek, extending over most of its course, a distance of 3 miles, is a 

 large collection of hot springs, with a few geysers. This group has 

 been named the Heart Lake Basin. Tliey were probably first discov- 

 ered by Mr. Evarts, while lost from the Washburn party, in which case 

 Heart Lake is his Lake Bessie. But as they were, with the lake and 

 other surroundings, first mapped with an approach to accuracy by 

 Captains Barlow and Heap, in 1871, the names given by them should 

 stand. From the southeast corner of this lake Heart River flows south- 

 ward, uniting, after a course of five miles, with Barlow's Fork. The 

 combined streams then pursue a devious course to the southward for a 

 few miles, then, joined on the south boundary of the Park by the Snake, 

 they turn northwest, and finally southwest, towards the Forks. South 

 of the Snake and Barlow's Fork the country rises very rapidly to 

 mountains 9,000 feet in height, standing in meridional ridges, across the 

 north ends of which the river has cut a passage. On the north is a high, 

 trachyte-covered plateau, rising gradually towards the Red Mountains. 



• Report U. S. Geol. Survey for 1872, p. 258. 



