CHUA RU EAT WV. TE 
WIND RIVER BASIN. 
Area and.surface features.—The region drained by Wind River and its 
afflnents opens out to the eastward in a gradually expanding wedge- 
shaped area, the greater portion of which lies beyond the limits of the 
district assigned this division of the survey. The main stream rises in 
Togwotee Pass, whence it flows in a general east-southeast direction, a 
distance of about 85 miles, to its confluence with Little Wind River, at 
which point its course is suddenly deflected northwards, and is thence 
known as the Bighorn River. Orographically the basin is defined on 
the southwest by the Wind River Range and on the north by the great 
voleanic ridges of the watershed reaching eastward from Togwotee Pass, 
and which are continued in approximately the same direction in the 
lower highlands of the Owl Creek Mountains ; to the southeast the basin 
area merges into that properly belonging to the Bighorn drainage. 
The region above outlined has in years past been visited by various 
expeditions conducted under the auspices of the United States War De- 
partment, and to the published reports of these explorations we owe the 
most authentic accounts of its general topographic and geological feat- 
ures. Dr. Hayden, who accompanied the expedition in charge of Capt. 
W. F’. Reynolds, Engineer Corps, U.S. A., in 1859, has given account 
of its salient geologic structure, and Prof. Theodore Comstock, of 
Capt. W. A. Jones’s expedition to the Yellowstone, 1873, has elaborated 
the same theme. The actual geological examinations performed by this 
division of the survey within this basin area were chieily confined to a 
narrow belt immediately along the southwest border, or lying between 
Wind River and the mountain range bearing the same name. The latter 
work was carried from Togwotee Pass at the head of the valley southeast- 
ward to the eastern boundary of the district and beyond as far as Camp 
Brown, at which latter point the observations connect with those made 
by Dr. Endlich the previous season in the district lying to the south of 
the parallel 43° and east of the meridian 109° 30’. 
The greater portion of the basin is thoroughly watered by numerous 
streams that rise in the bordering mountains, its terraced valleys and 
upland plateaus being generaily clothed with nutritious herbage. In 
the lower portion of this area, however, more or less of its surface falls 
under the head of “bad lands.” Its general surface lies at an altitude 
5,000 to 7,000 feet above the sea; the lower valleys in favorable seasons 
yielding abundant crops of cereals and vegetables, while the greater 
portion of its extent is valuable for grazing purposes. The larger part 
of this extensive and beautiful region is included in the Shoshone Indian 
Reservation, which extends up the valley from Little Wind River west, 
to the mouth of North Fork, and stretches north-south, from mountain 
to mountain. 
Geological features.—-In that portion of its course lying within the pres- 
ent district, Wind River flows close along the foot of the southwest bor- 
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