F. V. Hayden— Yellowstone National Park. 295 
“game time a similar bill was offered in the House of Represent- 
atives, by Hon. Wm. H. Claggett, the delegate from Montana. 
After due consideration in the Committee on Public Lands in 
e bill now before Congress has for its object the withdrawal 
from settlement, occupancy, or sale, under the laws of the United 
States, a tract of land fifty-five by sixty-five miles, about the 
sources of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers; and dedicates 
months of June, July and August, the climate is pure and most 
Mvigorating, with scarcely any rain or storms of an kind; but 
the thermometer frequently sinks as low as 26°. ere is frost 
every month of the year. ‘This whole region was in comparatively 
modern geological times the scene of the most wonderful voleanic 
n 
these springs are adorned with decorations more beautifal 
> 
than human art ever conceived, and which have required thousands 
