GANXKTT.l TOPOGRAPHY THE YELLOWSTONE EANGE. 481 



extreme northern branches head opposite those of Clark's Fork of the 

 Yellowstone. It is, in the main, arapid stream, and is subject to extreme 

 freshets, as is shown by the ragged condition of its bed, by its rapid 

 erosion, and by the enormous deposits of gravel, bowlders, and dead tim- 

 ber wherever its current is checked. Its course, after the first gathering 

 together of waters, is nearly northward for 25 miles along the base of the 

 Yellowstone Range. It is separated from the Yellowstone by a high, 

 broad ridge, the northern part of which is known as Amethyst Eidge. 

 In this part of its course it is joined by several large streams from the 

 east, which head far in the recesses of the mountains. Of these the 

 largest is Soda Butte Creek, a stream nearly equal in size to the main 

 scream above their junction. 



Finally, having reached the end of the Amethyst Eidge, the stream 

 turns west, flows in this course for about 7 miles, and falls into the 

 Yellowstone. 



Above Soda Butte Creek the stream is in a canon, bounded on either 

 side by very high but not precipitous walls. On the right rise the mount- 

 ain slopes: on the left is a high, rolling country, intersected by shallow 

 valleys, running east and west, i. e., nearly transverse to the courses of 

 the main streams. In each of these valleys are two streams, one flow- 

 ing east to the East Fork, the other west to the Yellowstone, with a very 

 slightly-marked divide between them. These valleys are bare of timber, 

 forming beautiful little parks, while the ridges between them are densely 

 timbered. 



Traveling northward on this divide, between the Yellowstone and its 

 East Fork, we soon leave most of the timber, and, rising a few hundreds 

 of feet, find that the divide has changed its character. It has become 

 a sharp ridge, broken into summits, sloping to the Grand Caijon, and 

 pitching ott" abruptly to the East Fork, which here, below the month of 

 Soda Butte Creek, is meandering lazily down a broad valley, with many 

 crooks and windings. The valley here, for 6 miles, has an average width 

 of about 2 miles. The divide here is known as Specimen Ridge, and one 

 of its summits, on which many fine amethysts have been found, as Ame- 

 thyst Mountain. 



THE YELLOWSTONE RANGE. 



This name has been given by Dr. Hayden to the great range which 

 extends from the Yellowstone River southward to Union Pass, and sep- 

 arates the drainage of the Big Horn from that of the upper course of 

 the Yellowstone. It is the range to which Captain Jones, in 1 873, gave 

 the name of Sierra Shoshone, nnder the mistaken idea that it had not 

 yet been christened. His claim to the privilege of naming it is thus 

 stated : * 



As I have been the first; to cross them and mark out their geographical position and 

 extent. Professor Hayden has called what he has seen of them and their western 

 border sometimes the "Snowy Mountains" aud sometimes the "Yellowstone Mount- 

 ains," but he has also applied the latter name to a range lying south of Yellowstone 

 Lake that has no existence. 



As to the first statement: Captain Jones has crossed this range at 

 two points — at Stinking Water and Togwotee Passes — both near the 

 southern end. He has mapped from his own work, in a rough way, the 

 portion of the eastern slope between these ])asses, and the range in the 

 neighborhood of these passes. At least three- fourths of the range he 

 never saw. All tiiis was in 1873. 



*■ Report on Rrcounaissauce of Northwestern Wyoming, p. 21. 

 31 H, FT. II 



