244 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 



numerous large springs bursting from low down in the sides of a high 

 plateau of very porous volcanic sandstones, which we afterward foilind to 

 extend for several miles to the southward. This was evidently the head 

 of one branch of the stream crossed and camped on by us on the even- 

 ing of August 3, as we were ascending the valley of Henry's Fork. In 

 the absence of any prior designation, I have called this Bechler's Kiver. 

 Its upper course is among deep ravines, with sharp slopes, but well 

 timbered, for some six or eight miles. It then passes through a rather 

 narrow caiion, with bare, precipitous walls, whose extent was not de- 

 termined, and emerges into a broad, grassy basin, which reaches nearly 

 to our lower crossing-place. 



The snow lying among the timber gave us an opportunity of observing 

 the game-trails ; and we were surprised at seeing so few. A few miles 

 farther east, game is very abundant. 



In crossing the divide eastward from Madison Lake, the western 

 slopes are quite steep, and porphyritic obsidian sandstone appears in 

 heavy rounded masses, but slightly disintegrated. On the eastern face 

 the slopes are much more easy, and the rock is much disintegrated into 

 a very loose, spongy soil, which, where the timber has been burned 

 from the upper spurs, makes very slumpy traveling, at least in wet 

 weather. 



Descending the valley of a small but rapid stream, the principal 

 affluent of this part of the lake, the trail crosses a considerable area of 

 hot springs and geysers, to a good camping ground on the edge of the 

 marsh, which here prevents easy access to the immediate shore of 

 Shoshone Lake.* 



If we had not been fresh from the wonders of the Great Geyser- 

 Basins of the Fire-Hole Fork, we should have considered the phenomena 

 now about us as extremely grand and beautiful. In beauty, indeed, 

 these springs are probably unsurpassed ; but the geyser-eruptions ex- 

 hibit much less force than those we had just left. Still, I consider it 

 desirable to make the recorded descriptions of all these phenomena 

 pretty full, and will therefore give a general description of the vents of 

 the Shoshone Lake Geyser-Basin. The area occupied by active springs 



* This lake was seen by Dr. Haycleu in 1871, wliile he was retnrniug, with a small 

 party, from the Fire-Hole Basins to Yellowstone Lake, but at a point some miles east 

 of this camp. His guides informed him that the name Madison Lake had been applied 

 to it by the hunters, and that it was considered the head of a fork of the Madison River. 

 On the strength of this information, in the absence of an opportunity of exploringit suf- 

 ficiently to verify or disprove the statements, the maps of last year's report give the 

 name as Madison Lake and show a stream which was supposed to connect it with the 

 Madison River. Its connection proving not to be with the Madison and Missouri, but 

 with tlie Suake and the Columbia, it became at once a question whether the old name 

 sliould any longer be used for this body of water or should be transferred to the true 

 lake-source of the Madison. This latter course was unanimously decided on. The 

 latest published map of this region, for many localities the best, and supjiosably the 

 best for this particular neighborhood, smce the author claims to have traveled here, is 

 one recently compiled by W. W. DeLacey, of Helena, and published by G. W. & C. B. 

 Colton, of New York, (edition of 1872.) This shows a so-called Madison Lake, a so- 

 called DeLacey's Lake, located some miles west of the head of the Madison and about 

 fifteen miles long, and still a third, called Lake Bessie, all three of which we were ulti- 

 mately obliged to identify with the body of water now before us. It has, therefore, 

 been considered whether we should adopt either of the two latter names. The last, 

 Lake Bessie, was at once rejected, as having been originallj' proposed for the lake long 

 known to the hunters of the region as Heart Lake, for changing whose naa)e there 

 was and is no valid reason. The numerous and outrageous errors of the map show 

 that neither as discoverer nor as mapper of this lake has Mr. DeLacey any oJaim to a 

 perpetuation of his name ; and, since the lake occupies a position entirely different 

 from that assigned to DeLacey's Lake, wo have decided to drop that title, and to call 

 this, in our maps and reports, Shoshone Lake, as being the head of one of the princi- 

 pal forks of the Shoshone or Snake River. 



