Camping and Hiinting in the Shoshone 



timber and on the hill ; and if there was a 

 little more sulphur in the air, just for fif- 

 teen minutes or so, than the neighboring 

 springs accounted for. Western men, at 

 least, will make some allowances. 



At last we were in camp, and such a 

 camp ! Circled by a belt of old pines, 

 gnarled and twisted by the winter winds 

 that had swept across the lake till their 

 limbs were more like the limbs of oak than 

 those of conifers. On one side a narrow 

 strip of snowy sand ; on the other a green 

 meadow, down which flowed a clear 

 stream, heated to about 70° by many hot- 

 springs that flowed in farther up. The 

 sandy shore ended in a little spit running 

 out some four hundred yards into the water ; 

 and there, in perfect content, and moved 

 by a slowly awakening curiosity, sat a se- 

 date family of geese, — father and mother 

 and some ten inexperienced but well-de- 

 veloped youngsters. South of us lay the 

 water ; east of us spread the unbroken for- 

 est, rising higher and higher till all vege- 

 tation fell away from the scarped and 

 turreted summits of the main range ' of 

 the Shoshone; while on our right, to the 

 west, sheer out of the lake rose Mount 

 Sheridan almost ten thousand five hundred 

 feet, its broad forehead still capped with 



79 



