GA-\xErr.] TOPOGRAPHY THIRD CANON OF THE YELLOWSTONE. 479 



and Elk Creeks. "While the former are quite abrupt, the latter are very 

 gentle and gradual. 



The timber-line in this group is at about 10,000 feet above sea, some 

 of the highest i)eaks reaching above it. 



TOWEB- CREEK. 



This stream drains the great amphitheater inclosed by the Washburn 

 Mountains. The stream has three main branches, the uppermost, which 

 continues the name of Tower Creek, Carnelian Creek, which heads in 

 the pass crossed by the trail, and Antelope Creek, which heads in 

 IMount Washburn and flows into the main stream only a hundred 

 yards above its junction with the Yellowstone. The latter is the only 

 branch which has a valley, as the ottiers flow in mountain gorges in 

 their upper courses, changing to plateau canons farther down. This, 

 although a good-sized stream, has not cut its bed down to the level of the 

 Yellowstone, but at a point about one-quarter of a mile above its mouth 

 it leaps over a cliff 132 feet high* into a deep, dark, gloomy gorge, down 

 which it hurries to join the river. The scenery of this fall is very fine. 

 Above, the stream is a rapid torrent, rushing down a steeply inclined 

 bed, paved with great bowlders, and inclosed between i)recipitous walls 

 300 to 400 feet high. At the brink of the falls erosion has left standing 

 many tall, acicular spires of volcanic conglomerate, which give the name 

 to the Fall. From below, we see these spires continued downwards to 

 the lower level, in bas-relief, on the faces of the cliffs. The fall is a 

 clear leap, unbroken by any j) rejection, and the gorge below is so deep 

 and narrow that the sun's rays seldom penetrate it and dispel its gloom. 



Descending gradually from the plateau, we enter a small valley on 

 the west side, at the base of the eastern cusp of the Washburn Mount- 

 ains. The floor of this valley is elevated 200 to 300 feet above the 

 level of the river, whence it descends by steep bluffs. 



THIRD CANON OF THE YELLOWSTONE. 



The canons on the river are numbered from below. The first or Lower 

 Canon is a short distance above the great eastern bend of the river, 

 the second extends from a i^oint about 10 miles above the well-known 

 ranch of the Bottler Brothers to Cinnabar Mountain and the Devil's 

 Slide, while the third, commencing at the mouth of Gardiner's Eiver, 

 extends up to the mouth of the East Fork. This differs in many im- 

 portant respects from the Grand Canon. Though largelj^ carved from 

 volcanic rocks, it is by no means as precipitous. In some places it is 

 cut in granite. The walls are much less even, being broken down in 

 many places. On the south, the country bordering it is a rolling, un- 

 even plateau, covered with grass and sage, with timber only in groves. 

 On the north side the walls are formed by the foot-hills of the Yellow- 

 stone Kange, which gives a very different character to the orographic 

 forms. Indeed, the walls are so irregular that it is very difficult to 

 speak at all concerning the depth of the canon. It may be said, how- 

 ever, that the plateau ranges from 7,000 to 8,000 feet, while the river, 

 which, at the moutli of East Fork, is 5,978 feet above the sea, has an 

 elevation at the mouth of Gardiner's River of 5,300 feet. There is no 

 point in this canon where either wall exceeds 2,500 feet in height. 



'Barometric measurement, 1872. Doano makes it 115 feet, Barlow and Heap, 156 

 feet. Their methods of measurement are not given. 



