246 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[April 33, 1885. 



THROUGH TWO-OCEAN PASS. 



XIV. — DOWN ATLANTIC CREEK TO THE LAKE. 



rpWO-OCEAN PASS lias long been known to mountain 

 -*- men. The earliest traditions speak of it as a pass in 

 which is a spring whose waters, flowing by two channels 

 from either side, take their way down the opposite slopes of 

 the divide to flow at last into the Atlantic and Pacific 

 oceans. General Raynolds, in his report of the exploration 

 of the Yellowstone in 1868, refers to it; Jones passed through 

 it from the east in 1873, and Hayden visited it in 1878, also 

 from the east. Both of these writers describe the Pass, and 

 give sketch maps of the vallejr and the drainage. Jones's 

 examination was confessedly very hasty, as he traversed the 

 Pass in a driving storm, and seems to have taken a good deal 

 for granted. Hayden's, though professing to have been 

 made somewhat carefully, took place in October, at a time 

 when there is usually considerable snow on the ground, al- 

 though he says nothing about this. As the snow was from 

 one to two feet deep when we crossed the divide, we can add 

 nothing to their observations. The Pass is in a wide meadow, 

 and the divide between the waters flowing to the two oceans 

 is evidently very low, probably not more than a few inches 

 in height, and in times of high water, that is, in spring and 

 early summer, when the snows are melting, it is very likely 

 that there is standing water in the Pass from which streams 

 flow into both Atlantic and Pacific Creeks. The principal 

 heads of the latter flow from the mountains on the north side 

 of the Pass, and have their sources to the east of the heads 

 of Atlantic Creek, which rise in the mountains to the south. 



The country in the neighborhood of the Pass is very beau- 

 tiful. The valley sometimes narrows almost to a mere gorge, 

 or again spreads out in a wide meadow. On either side, the 

 hills rise steeply, first in timber-covered slopes, and then above 

 these are the precipitous square-shaped, rock-faced summits. 

 There is a good deal of game here too, chiefly elk, so far as 

 I could observe, and some bears, and the country looks like 

 a good hunting region. It is, however, within the limits of 

 the Park as proposed to be increased, so that when this 

 change takes place, there will be no hunting to be had here. 

 Still it is a delightful region to visit, and no more delightful 

 trip could be made than to follow our route, gaining thus an 

 excellent idea of a stretch of country which must for several 

 years be away from the. route of the ordinary tourist, and 

 passing through scenery as varied and as lovely as can b e 

 found on this continent. This route is indicated by the 

 white-lined trail on the map of the Park published in For- 

 est and Stream of Feb. 5 last. 



The Park ought to be extended if for no other purpose 

 than to include the beautiful country about Two-Ocean Pass. 



T wo or three miles beyond the Pass we camped on the 

 west side of the lovely valley. We were close beneath the 

 woods, and opposite us rose the pine-clad hills, showing occa- 

 ionally bare precipices, naked and rough with huge frag- 

 ments of rock. Here and there in the openings among the 

 dark timber were seen patches of snow, and the valley before 

 us was a shining plain of white, broken only occasionally by 

 an elk trail. The snow was deep and somewhat crusted, and 

 the poor horses and mules had to work hard for their dinner, 

 gathering scanty mouthfuls of grass from the sheltered spots 

 beneath the trees, where there was least snow. The creek 

 here was still very small. 



We shovelled away the snow from beneath the tree where 

 our tent was to be pitched, and so were enabled to spread our 

 blankets on what might, by a figure of speech, be termed 

 bare ground. There was only an inch or two of ice and 

 snow beneath them. 



The night was bitter cold, and although well provided 

 with blankets, I found it impossible to sleep. About 3 

 o'clock I got up, and looked out of the tent door. It was 

 one of the most brilliant nights I have ever seen. The 

 moon, in her last quarter, was nearly at the zenith, and, 

 shining on the frozen snow, made it almost as light as day. 

 The stars shone with unusual brightness and the great 

 planet that hung in the eastern sky fairly blazed. Every- 

 thing was frozen hard as a rock. Over by the aparejos was 

 a bright fire, and by it I saw Stuart standing. I called to 

 him, asking if he, too, had been frozen out. He replied 

 that he had not, but that he did not propose to be left afoot 

 It was too cold to ask him then what he meant, and I again 

 sought the shelter of my blankets. The next morning he 

 told the story of the night. 



He had been in bed some time when he was awakened by 

 hearing a curious grinding noise, for which he could not 

 account. As he listened it grew louder, and its cause 

 suddenly flashed upon him. The horses were starting 

 back on the trail. Jumping out of his blankets, he tried to 

 put on his boots, but they were wet and frozen, and the case 

 being desperate, he reached for Saddlemeyer's, put them on, 

 and crawled out of the tent. As he did so he could see the 

 horses coming. Without showing himself he crept behind 

 the aparejos, which stood close to the trail, having first pro- 

 vided himself with a good-sized club from the stock of 

 wood piled up by the fire. On came the unlucky thirteen, 

 tiptoeing over the trail, iu which the frozen snow crunched 

 and creaked under their hoofs. Old Rocket was in the lead, 

 and close behind him came all the others, the mules with 

 their ears well forward, as they looked suspiciously at each 

 shadow cast on the snow by the trees. When Rocket 

 reached the aparejos, Stuart sprang out with a yell, and 

 thumped him soundly with his club, and in thirty seconds 

 there was not a horse or a mule in sight. They had all 



turned and hurried bads into the valley whence they had 

 come. Then Stuart turned into his blankets agaiu. 



He had once more fallen asleep, when he was again awak- 

 ened. This time it was the bell that he heard, and it kept 

 growing louder and louder. Again he arose, put on Sad- 

 dlemeyer's boots, and looked out to see that again the herd 

 was stealthily coming along the trail. This time old Prickly 

 was ahead, and this time when he reached the. aparejos the 

 leader's ancient hide resounded to the blows of Stuart's club, 

 and once more the herd vanished. Seeing, as he thought, 

 that they were going to keep this up all night, Stuart made 

 up his mind to watch until morning, and spent the remain- 

 der of the night sitting by the fire, smoking, drying his boots 

 and so on ; and he swore that every half hour until sunrise 

 either old Prickly or Rocket would cautiously come up the 

 face of the bluff, stick his head over, look at him, sigh and 

 then disappear again. 



The reason for all this was that the animals could get 

 nothing to eat. They Temembered that they had had good 

 feed one or two camps back, and knew that there was a 

 trad all the way to it; before them the snow was unbroken 

 and deep, and besides they did not know what was in store 

 for them if they went on. 



In the morning everything that had been wet or damp the 

 night before was frozen stiff. It look some time to thaw 

 things out so that the packs could be put on the mules, and 

 we did not get away before 10 o'clock. Just below our 

 camp, the valley narrowed, and the trail appeared to lead 

 over the low ridges, which ran out from the mountains, and 

 we attempted to follow it, but the snow made this somewhat 

 difficult. After traveling for a few miles, winding in and 

 out among the timber, we came out into a broad valley, 

 bounded on either side by mountains. This valley is from 

 one to two miles broad and eight or ten long, and is almost 

 perfectly level. The mountains which directly hem it in, 

 are perhaps 1,000 feet in height, and are composed of the 

 volcanic rock which is so characteristic of this region. Where 

 this rock is visible, as it is near the top of this inclosing wall, 

 it has the appearance of being stratified, for the horizontal 

 lava sheet which overspreads the country wlien exposed to 

 the elements weathers off with a cubical fracture. For three- 

 quarters of the distance from base to summit the pine forest 

 obscures the precipice, but above this the rock is bare, and 

 rises like the ruin of some ancient wall or battlement. At 

 times the ascent is less steep and these rock walls stand 

 further back, and at their foot is seen a little basin which 

 collects the precipitation from the whole mountain, and from 

 which a brawling water course hurries down through the 

 pine timber to the level plain below. Higher peaks stand- 

 ing somewhat back from the vaney, and seen through the 

 canons, which here and there run down into it, are heavily 

 covered with snow, and upon them can be seen heavy drifts, 

 and, extending over the brows of the steep precipices, curling 

 snow wreaths reach out their thin edges. The erosion which 

 lias taken place on this hard lava produces very striking 

 effects, and the faces of the cliffs look as if worn and 

 guttered by rain or by streams of water, having thus some- 

 what the appearance of the Maumixf-s Tare* formation seen 

 along the Missouri and in Southern Wyoming. 



Though so attractive in appearance and apparently promis- 

 ing an easy road, this broad valley was in reality impracti- 

 cable. One could see at half a glance that it was miry, and 

 the fact that it was covered with snow made it all the more 

 dangerous, because places, which, if bare, would be readily 

 recognized as impassable, were now hidden. It was necessary, 

 therefore, to keep close to the hdls on the north side, and 

 even then we frequently encountered soft spots in which the 

 animals sank rather deeply. We were, however, remark- 

 ably fortunate. Hell fell down once, and Granny mired, so 

 that we were obliged to take her pack off, but except for these 

 two trifling mishaps there were no accidents. Occasionally, 

 on reaching some narrow valley, down which a little moun- 

 tain stream poured, we would find the rich black soil so very 

 shaky and unstable that it would be necessary to strike back 

 away from the valley and over the timbered ridges, and here 

 the fallen trees gave us a little trouble. Travel was some- 

 what slow, but on the whole we got on very well. 



There were abundant signs of game here. Most of the 

 tracks seen were those of elk and bear, but here and there I 

 noticed those of deer. On this side of the Pass the elk were 

 traveling eastward— going down the Upper Yellowstone into 

 the Park— and late in the afternoon, after reaching that 

 stream we saw a band of thirty or forty on the other side of 

 the river, and so quite out of our reach. In the timber here 

 quite a number of tracks of the large gray wolf were noticed 

 about the remains of a cow elk, that had been killed only a 

 day or two before. 



Late in the afternoon we forded the Upper Yellowstone, 

 which is here a wide, deep stream, and camped on the east 

 bank on a beautiful bit of level, grassy meadow, with a few 

 pines about the tents and a wide willowy flat just below. 

 All through the day, as we followed down Atlantic Creek, the 

 snow had been growing less deep, and here at our camp it 

 lay upon the ground only in isolated patches. I was glad 

 for the sake of the poor animals that the camp was so 

 advantageously situated, for during the past three days they 

 had had scarcely anything to eat. Our tent was pitched 

 with its back to the river, and so faced the east and the 

 beautiful snow -covered mountains. The black face of Turret 

 Mountain stood out prominently a little to our right as we 

 looked toward the hijls. 



During the day's march we had seen several broods of 

 ruffed grouse, all of which were so tame that they would 

 scarcely move out of the horses' way as we rode by them. 

 Ducks were abundant in the river. They were chiefly 

 red -breasted mergansers and buffle heads. Kingfishers and 

 white-headed eagles were seen here, and soon after we 

 camped we were visited by a dozen meat-hawks, who sat 

 about the cook tent very much as if it belonged to them. 

 These birds appear to possess considerable mimetic powers 

 and have a great variety of calls. 



The next morning, as I was down at the water's edge, just 

 after rising, 1 witnessed a dash at a family of buffle heads 

 by a young goshawk. The brood of ducks were flying down 

 the river, when the hawk flew out of the timber almost above 

 my head and darted toward them at once. They all tumbled 

 into the water with a great deal of splashing, and the hawk 

 made a stoop at one of them, which was a little apart from 

 the main flock, but the duck flapped to one side and easily 

 avoided him. The hawk then gave the matter up, and flew 

 into a tall fir, where he sat and watched the brood as they 

 sailed swiftly down the stream to the rapid below. When 

 the ducks first saw him they all set up a shrill, peeping cry, 

 as if of warning. A little spotted sandpiper, that happened 

 to be flyiug up the stream at the moment, was frightened 

 nearly to death, thinking that the hawk was after him. He 

 dropped into the water as if he had been shot, and sat there 

 with his head cocked on one side watching the enemy, and 

 evidently prepared to dive at an instant's warning if any 

 demonstrations should be directed toward him. 



The mules were all saddled before breakfast, and we made 

 rather an early start. The river bottom is here quite wide, 

 and is evidently often overflowed when the snows melt 

 in spring. It is intersected by sloughs which are some- 

 times miry and very deep. For some time we followed the 

 bottom down, edging over to the hills on the eastern side. 

 Once only we were delayed by a wide slough which was 

 very miry. Several times we drove the Pinto through it, 

 but could find no satisfactory place to cross; but at length, 

 just as we were about to give up the attempt and had started 

 to go round its head, Stuart found a place where the bottom 

 was hard, and here we passed over without difficulty. From 

 the little sloughs in this bottom we started many mallards 

 and teal. 



A little further on the trail passes by a very steep ascent 

 up the bluffs and follows along the hillside through the green 

 timber. At several points the way crosses places where 

 ditches have, been torn out, trees uprooted and great rocks 

 thrown about, evidently by the sudden and violent action of 

 water, perhaps a cloud burst or something of that nature. 



Along this mountain side we noticed great boulders of the 

 hard volcanic conglomerate whicb constitutes so large a part 

 of the rock of this region, and which we had seen almost 

 everywhere since leaving Snake River, Rolled boulders of 

 it were observed in the stream beds of Buffalo and Pacific 

 creeks, where we crossed them in the valley of Snake River, 

 the rock was seen in place at our second camp on Pacific 

 Creek, and the day before, we had seen several isolated pyra- 

 midal masses of the same rock standing in the level valley of 

 Atlantic; Creek. This conglomerate is composed of bits of 

 volcanic rock of many kinds. Sometimes all the fragments 

 are rolled and water worn, at others all then edges are 

 sharply angular as if they had not been at all transported. 

 These fragments vary in size from that of a pea to a 

 hogshead. They are cemented together by a hard clayey 

 matrix, which, on exposure to the weather, readily decom- 

 poses and seems to contain some yellow sand. The boulders 

 are of all sizes, from a pound to fifty tous in weight. They 

 are no doubt forced off from the main mass of the mountain 

 chiefly by the action of water which, penetrating the cracks 

 in the rock, and alternately freezing and thawinsr, gradually 

 wedges them out of position, and away from their beds high 

 up on the hillside, 



We stopped to examine these boulders, and while we did 

 so the packs were tightened. A few hundred yards further 

 on, just as we were dipping down into a narrow gully, I saw 

 three deer slip out of the brush just ahead of us, and run out 

 of the timber across the sage-brush covered hillside. I 

 slipped off my mule, ran across the ravine and out beyond 

 the timber. For an instant as I looked about I could sec 

 nothing of them, and then I caught sight of three does stand- 

 ing near the top of the ridge, and just below the edge of the 

 timber. I fired with a coarse sight at one of them, and as I 

 lowered my rifle saw her drop her ear, as if I had shot 

 through it. I fired again as they were running, and one, as 

 I thought, limped over the ridge. The last one stopped 

 almost at its crest, and looked back, and my third shot 

 brought her down. Hurrying back I mounted, and we rode 

 up the steep hill to the top. The last doe lay dead near 

 where she had fallen. The ball had struck her back of the 

 short ribs and had ranged forward. Nothing was seen of 

 either of the other animals, and as no blood sign could be 

 found, the presumption is that neither of the other shots did 

 any damage. From the high point where the deer lay we 

 could look out over the distant waters of the lake and the 

 surrounding country. At our feet, flowing through the thick 

 timber was the broad river with high mountains beyond it. 

 Then looking toward the lake we saw the dark green pines, 

 beyond them the paler willows at the river's mouth, then 

 the deep blue of the lake, again the green pines beyond, and 

 above them the snow and the pale blue sky in which hung a 

 single white cloud. Jt was $ combination of coloring seldom. 



