262 SCIENCE SKETCHES. 
Columbia. John Coltér was a hunter in this ex- 
pedition. By some chance he went across the 
mountains on the old trail of the Nez Percés 
Indians, which leads across the Divide from the 
Missouri waters to those of the Columbia. When 
he came back from the Nez Percés trail, he told 
most wonderful tales of what he had seen at the 
head of the Missouri. There were cataracts of 
scalding water which shot straight up into the air; 
there were blue ponds hot enough to boil fish; 
there were springs that came up snorting and 
steaming, and which would turn trees into stone; 
the woods were full of holes from which issued 
streams of sulphur; there were cafions of untold 
depth, with walls of ashes full of holes which let off 
steam like a locomotive, and there were springs 
which looked peaceful enough, but which at times 
would burst like a bomb. 
Every one Jaughed at Colter and his yarns, and 
this place where all lies were true was familiarly 
known as “Colter’s Hell.” But for once John 
Colter told the truth, and the truth could not 
easily be exaggerated. But no one believed him. 
When others who afterward followed him over the 
Nez Percés trail told the same stories, people said 
they had been up to “ Colter’s Hell” and had 
learned to lie. 
But, as time passed, other men told what they 
had seen, until, in 1870, a sort of official survey 
was made under the lead of Washburne and Doane. 
This party got the general bearings of the region, 
named many of the mountains, and found so much 
of interest that the next year Dr. Hayden, the 
