HISTORICAL AND OTHERWISE 81 



Mountains. Through these there is but one out- 

 let that is at all practicable — Sylvan Pass, 8,600 

 feet in altitude. 



On the south, the Big Game Range presents 

 another great mountain wall. On the northwest 

 is the Gallatin Range, and, on the southwest, the 

 Tetons repel the adventurous. 



These mighty barriers are among the reasons 

 that so long deterred exploration and settlement 

 of this wonderful region. 



It is a curious fact that this, the most wonderful, 

 interesting and strange, part of the United States 

 should have been the very last to be known, 

 explored, delimited, and opened to the traveler. 

 For this there were reasons other than its moun- 

 tain isolation. Other regions more inaccessible 

 than this, more forbidding, had been opened to 

 settlement long before the Yellowstone was 

 known, except by name. About it clustered myths. 

 Vague rumors of its wonders percolated out to be 

 laughed at and derided, but no one cared to 

 verify or to disprove them until the Washburne- 

 Doane expedition of 1870 finally settled the loca- 

 tion, limits and wonders of the region. 



