Campiitg and Hunting in the Shosh^me 



Yellowstone Lake, hidden by a short but 

 steep range of hills that rise over two thou- 

 sand five hundred feet above the unbroken 

 woodland. 



We were bound to get to Heart Lake ; 

 none of our men had ever been there. 

 For days and days we had been in the 

 timber, — timber that stood as thick as 

 Yellowstone pine can stand, — and often 

 were without a sign of a trail. We were 

 having terrible bother with our packs, and 

 the men wanted to get out of the timber 

 at any cost; nothing would do them but a 

 direct ascent of the mountain-ridge which 

 I have just mentioned.* 



Up we got at last ; and at our very feet 

 lay the lovely lake, blue as cloudless sky 

 and clear, unruffled waters ever looked. 

 We had, as was not to be wondered at, 

 a very bad time getting down ; and then 

 at the foot lay a " formation " — as hot- 

 springs and geysers are called out there — 

 full of treacherous spots. Into these, of 

 course, two of the most troublesome pack- 

 horses floundered. It was late in the day ; 

 the march had been long and very weary- 

 ing, with constant shifting of packs in the 



* If you want to get on with your men, tell them where you 

 want to go, where you will go at any cost, and then don't bother 

 them about the road. Most greenhorns drive their men wild with 

 perpetual questioning. 



78 



