HISTORICAL AND OTHERWISE 89 



from transparent. Old Jim knew the glass cliff, 

 and drew on his imagination for the rest. 



Once he found a stream that flowed so swiftly 

 over the rocks that the friction made the water hot. 

 Again there was a modicum of truth. In one of 

 the cold water streams, in its very center, is a hot 

 spring that boils up from the rock bottom, and 

 from it Bridger derived his fable of water boiled 

 by its own friction. 



One day he crossed a stream in the Park, and a 

 little later discovered that his horse's feet were 

 shrinking to mere pegs. It was a river of alum 

 that had shrunk his horse's hoofs by contact. 

 Nor was this all. Such was the effect of the alum 

 river that his return trip was less than a quarter of 

 his going journey. Here is the puckering power 

 of alum reduced to the 'nth degree. 



Among his fables was one of a "petrified forest," 

 where everything — grass, trees, birds and animals 

 — had turned to stone. Again there was a founda- 

 tion of truth in it, for there is a real petrified forest, 

 in the northeastern part of the Park, full of petri- 

 fied wonders. 



