BEAVER DAMS — ATLANTIC WATERS. 241 



A meridian observation gave for latitude 41° 28' 28". A few 

 aspens occur in the bottom, with abundance of artemisia, some of 

 which were six and eight feet in height. An occasional outcrop 

 of coal was also observed ; the argillaceous shale, some three hun- 

 dred feet in height, through which the creek cuts a channel, dip- 

 ping north-westerly at an angle of 20°. 



Beyond this point the creek makes another cafion, which, re- 

 quiring some reconnoissance, we turned down into a pretty little 

 bottom, fringed with willows, currant-bushes, and birch, and en- 

 camped, having made only fourteen miles. We found the creek 

 filled, at short intervals, with beaver-dams, some of which had been 

 but recently constructed, the chips made by cutting down the 

 bushes, and the paths made through the grass and brush by drag- 

 ging them into the water, being still plainly discernible. The 

 stream furnishes some small fish, among which were speckled 

 trout. 



Friday, September 20. — Morning clear and bright. Ther. at 

 sunrise, 31°. Clouds however soon began to gather, and finally 

 covered the whole sky. It had been determined to go on until ten 

 or eleven o'clock, and then to make a halt of part of two days to 

 rate our chronometers, and to obtain, if practicable, a series of 

 satisfactory observations for longitude. But the sun being en- 

 tirely obscured, and it coming on to rain, the march was con- 

 tinued during the day. It unexpectedly cleared in time to obtain 

 a meridian observation for the latitude. 



Leaving the camp-ground early, we continued up the right bank 

 of the Muddy, over rather rough ground, covered with sage, for a 

 couple of miles, to within one mile of the point where the main fork 

 comes in from the Park Mountains on the south-east, where it 

 heads. Here we turned to the left up a beautiful pass, about a 

 mile and a-half in length, with a uniform gentle ascent to its sum- 

 mit. From the top of this pass we continued for four miles over 

 a gently undulating country, sloping to the right into the drain- 

 age of the Muddy. Here we reached the dividing height between 

 the waters of the Pacific and those of the Atlantic, 



One universal shout arose at the announcement of this fact ; and 

 visions of home and all its joys floated before the imagination in 

 vivid brightness. That to which we had so long been looking 

 forward, as a thing that might one day be, now seemed almost 

 within our grasp ; for we knew that the waters which we had at 

 length reached, flowed, in one unbroken stream, almost to the very 



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