252 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TEREITOEIES. 



Hole basins in 1871. Mr. Hering visited this lake, and found it to be 

 7,999 feet above the sea, while Lewis's Lake is 7,750 feet and Yellowstone 

 Lake is 7,788 feet. A high terrace is faintly indicated on the east side 

 of Lewis's Lake, but its level was not determined. This region should 

 be more carefully examined, with a view to ascertain whether there is 

 not some continuous terrace higher than the dividejust described, which 

 shall proNe that the whole of this broad comparatively flat area was, as 

 its general form suggests, covered by a large lake, which was really 

 tributary to both oceans. The lowest point of the actual divide was 

 determined to be 25 feet above Lake Eiddle, or 8,024 feet above the sea. 



In ascending the mountain, we found the easiest slopes very steep, so 

 as to make much zigzagging necessary in getting our animals to the 

 summit. As we occasionally looked back, we saw beneath us, on our 

 left, the large cluster of hot springs which occupies the head of the 

 valley of the longest tributary of Heart Lake, and, beyond, caught 

 glimpses of Yellowstone Lake. Upon reaching the first crest, both 

 lakes lay spread out before us, while, to the westward, Lewis's Lake and 

 Shoshone Lake were also in full view. Between us and Heart Lake lay 

 a great hollow of the mountain, looking much like a broken-down crater, 

 and very probably it may once have been one. The highest i)eak was still 

 beyond us, and we made but little delay, except to shoot grouse for sup- 

 per, in riding to its crest. This range was called Eed Mountain by Dr. 

 Hayden's party of the previous year; but its highest peak lacked a 

 name, until Captain Barlow visited its summit and dubbed it Mount 

 Sheridan.* It is one of the most sightly points in the whole region. 

 Surrounded by deep valleys on all sides, and itself standing 10,420 feet 

 above the sea, it gives one a range of vision over an immense area. 

 Sweeping round the horizon, I counted four hundred and seventy-five dis- 

 tinct mountain-summits, at distances varying from thirty to two-hundred 

 miles. The Tetons on the west loomed up grandly, while, through the 

 broad depression just north of them, the Crater Buttes, the Three Buttes, 

 the Salmon Eiver Mountains, and Sawtelle's Peak, were in full sight. To 

 the north, the Gallatin ^lonntains, the Belt Mountains, and Crazy Womaii 

 Mountains appeared close at hand, while along the eastern horizon stood 

 the high walls of the Yellowstone Eange and of the Big Horn Mountains, 

 and far to the southeast stood what vre supposed to be Fremont's Peak 

 and other crests of the Wind Eiver range. There appeared to be a 

 considerable depression in the Big Horn Mountains nearly due east from 

 the head of Yellowstone Lake, as if there might be a practicable pass 

 through the range at that point. This should be examined. Through- 

 out all this wide area, with its numerous lofty crests, there were no 

 "snow-coreret?" peaks, though many large bodies of snow appeared 

 near the summits in every direction. 



The lower slopes of the mountain are heavily timbered ; but, as we 

 approach the summit, the trees become scattered and stunted, consisting 

 mostly of Pinus flexUis and a small spruce, AMes BovgJasii, both char- 

 acteristic of high levels. The coarse, yellow lichen {Ever {f) niavulpina,) 

 often called "Montana moss," which is somewhat abundant at lower 

 levels, but is there rarelj^ found well fruited, grows here in immense 

 quantities, magnificently fruited, the spore-disks (apothecia) being fre- 



*Mouut Everts had been used for it, but that name was already iu use for a peak farther 

 north, and duplication of names is as objectionable in geography as in the ottier sciences. 

 It is not improbable that this may have been the peak to which the name Mount Mad- 

 ison of the old maps was intended to apply, but the location of that x>eak was so many 

 miles distant from the position of this, and had so ditfereut relations to surrounding 

 ranges, that we cannot consider the identiUcatiou at all certain, and therefore must 

 reject the name. 



