82 
•FOREST AND STREAM 
[Aug. 2, 1902. 
— ® — - 
Yellowstone Park from a Car 
Window. 
1; li* • 
In Two Parts— Part I. 
Though the title of this article is to a slight extent a 
misnomer, and we did not actually see the Park in that 
Vv'ay, still our trip was so lacking in all the elements of 
romance and discomfort, that I deem it only proper to 
prepare the reader's mind for what is to follow. 
Since Forest and Stream is allowing Mr, Sears to 
"walk" all over the South on rafts, in farmers' wagons, 
canoes and various other prosaic methods of locomotion, I 
hope I shall be pardoned if my account of our vacation is 
Jacking in elements of the picturesque, for we didii't camp, 
didn't tramp or pack our grub. On the contrary, we 
traveled in the most Philistine manner possible and had 
the best of everything we could get. 
The first stage of our journey brought Us to Ogden, a 
city which has for me a strong interest: first because it 
was named after Podgers ; second, because it don't amount 
to anything, and third, because it ought to. The location 
in the prairie just at the foot of some grand mountains, is 
ideal, and the fact that it is a railroad junction should 
make it important: but the view from the top story of the 
hotel where we breakfasted showed that the inhabitants 
had hardly lived up to their opportunities. Having some 
few liours to wait, we wrote letters and took pictures after 
a good breakfast and then put in a little time in the elec- 
tric cars, some of which were very good and others so re- 
markably dilapidated as to suggest the thought that the 
line was either in liquidation, or else an instance of 
municipal ownership. 
We had to get tickets at Ogden so long that the agent 
intimated that we had better do the town while he was 
getting them ready, and the train was twenty minutes 
late in its departure, but we were off at last in a car that 
was hot enough to fry eggs. There was the usual congre- 
gation of passengers, and the inevitable small boy. We- 
• • • had had one before, but a kind Providence had removed 
I . I him from our midst at Reno, This small boy was pretty 
sick and vei-y miserable, with a severe dose of whooping 
cough, and a very inexperienced mother who was hurry- 
ing him to the sea coast for a change of air, but meantime 
was filling him with alkali water and cake. As fast as he 
coughed himself empty, which he did at frequent intervals, 
fi she filled him tip again. I think that if she liad given him 
half a chance Jje .would have been quite a cheerful little 
beggar, for he seem«;d that way inclined, but between the 
cough and the cake he had a pretty hard time. 
At Pocotello, in the Fort Hall Indian Reservation, which 
has lately been the scene of . some exciting land locations, 
we saw several specimens^ of the "noble red man," and 
likewise of "Mrs. Lo." ' Fie' "favored" some startling 
effects in his costumq, combiAingithc; rnost striking por- 
tions of the habiliments of the cowboy wjth some of his 
own. One young brave, to. whose grace of carriage and 
eclecticism of dress we immediately succumbed, wore a 
cowboy hat and boots of the most aggravated type, a red 
calico shirt, a vol^ininpus scarf of: blue mosquito net 
around his neck, a;id no coat or vest. Another older brave 
had added a feather to his hat, moccasins and a gorgeous^, 
hued blanket. The squaWs. 'werei equally 'taking in their 
apparel (at a distance). •,ii > <i»i '-'i I'l 
We passed over some miles of laya plains, relieved at in- 
tervals by what looked fo;- all, the world like ruined Ticon- 
derogas, and though I knew that these were not the 
famous "lava beds" wh«re the Modocs made it warm for 
... [Can,by onqe, I couldn't help tliinking that some first-class 
of)portuiiities for an Iildian fight had gone to waste here- 
'libo'Uts'.-. " • ' ' ' • ■ ' " " 
As it grew dark the engine livened up the landscape by 
setting fire to the grass alongside the track, until we 
seemed to be traveling in the iiiidst' of a torchlight pro- , 
cession got tip especially in our hondr.' 
Monida (the name is made up! ;of, the first syllables of 
iVlontana^.and, Idaho^ and it lies just pn the boundary be- 
tween those , States) did not .seem very imposmg as we 
left the train; in fact, my first impressions of it were 
'"'liriiited to a big lantern and a streak of board walk shining 
in its glare; There were- no attentive gentlemen , of color ^ 
■ in red or any other caps, lying in wait for quarters, and T 
. ■' , was under the disagreeable necessity of loadmg Mrs. *** 
'""'with the cameras and smaller impedimenta, while T 
grasped the handles of two ver).' heavy bags. Fortunately 
ii - ,, the distance was less than it appeared..^ 
The hotel at Monida would hardly compare fdvorably ^ 
with the'^'Walled-off Hysteria," 'but Ve managed to make' 
- out fairly well, and after breakfast next mbrning I went 
©ut and made the acquaintance of a big dog of, the blue- 
^l.j ?rilDbon-St. -Bernard kind, and found him "a perfect gen- 
• ,t)eman," Avith ^i, pedigree and all the trimmings. 
' ' This lnetropoHs lies in a''p]ain surrounded by moun- 
^^' ' tains, and is in fact located near th« summit of the range 
whicin divides IdahQ. and Montana,, ^t an elevation of 7,000 
feet, which is about the. average elevation of the Pa.rk, so 
there is little or no climbing to do in the stage ride. 
The box seat of the" "coach," as it is quite properly 
j . called, was. pre-empted by a female, who popped up sud- 
.'(Benly from somewhere, and whose appearance was far , 
"hotn prepossessing. There were two other 'feminmes m 
i^-xi' the party, both younger and infinitely' better, looking, btit i. 
3n-jniMhU didn't count, on this occasion, and the la,dy,. whom we. , 
„^ rame to know subsequently as Missouri, and not unfr^.-t- 
" guently "as Misery, was not to be disturbed; her' passive _ 
''^'^^"rfeSistance being proof against all our eff^^^^^^ < < 
•^alifq-M. There is a great deal of country .about, here lymg , 
..IIM ariound out, doors,, and- once in j\ great, very great while 
M the va?tnesses were punctuated by^ a collection ot lom,, 
, "squatty looking log " cabin farm buildings; which are all 
•^"""^'tne sees, except a fcAV fihe-dooking cattle, of the famous 
•.^"i^ (stocbi-angeis of. Montana and Wyoming.., ,,.,1, 
^il- The , stage rpad .hardly yma^ jip , %o our ideas of^what 
i Stage road should be! Ia the first 'pTice; it was nearly" 
' lev^l, and'fouf horses-dra'gged k rather heavy e&ach along 
Ki),lKO^''^]i,^^jpi[^^ij^- ciifBcultyHhei-V t:he4-;ei#a-s-:jvery, littk dust, and 
w ^^Ko'' *-^ehuck - holes." -, N<w^ fv &tage - road wittiout ... chucTc' ' 
. holes, and no places just w,i4f^,,^P0ug| f^r the^ stage to^;^ 
squeeze wp and through, while you gaze in learspme 
miration at the tops of big pines, more feet below you 
than you like to think, was to us a novel experience, and 
we found ourselves joining in the conversation of the 
others and with them perpetrating moss-grown conun- 
drums and anecdotes of a hoary antiquity. 
At various places in the dim distance we saw floatitig 
white specks which we were told were swans (wild, of 
course), and they possibly were, though they might have 
been pelicans ; we were too far off to make .sure even 
with the binoculars. Misery on the box scat borrowed 
Mrs. ***'s sunshade, admired the scenery and took copious 
notes of everybody's yarns, while she poked the driver's 
eye out with the parasol. He found her a most engaging- 
companion, and traded off with an extra driver the first 
chance he got, "so he could get his eye put out for a 
while," 
Somewhere between 5 and 6 we drew tip at "Dwelle's," 
or, as it is more appropriately styled, the Grayling Inn, a 
log structure of considerable picturesque pretensions. 
Two large striped tents serve the purpose of annexes. 
The interior of the inn was quite prepossessing. A large 
central living room, with fireplace and comfortable chairs, 
and opening on to the dining room and various cham- 
bers, extended to the roof, while a gallery running round 
all four sides gave access to a second-story tier of sleeping 
rooms. The railing of this gallery, and the walls of the 
room, were ornamented with skins and heads and other 
trophies of the chase, and skin rugs were also plentifully 
bestowed about the floor. 
The manager of the establishment was a lady of Ameri- 
can nativity and administrative ability, and she rounded 
us up for dinner when we were trying to take photographs 
of the inn, with a polite but decided firmness that showed 
that she had a lively appreciation of what was due a 
good cook. 
After dinner we crossed a stream on a narrow foot 
bridge to- inspect a store kept by the proprietor of the 
hotel for tlie benefit of campers, and his own health. It 
was on the outside an unpretentious log structure, but 
inside it held the most heterogeneous collection I ever 
saw — shoes and candy, rifles, rubber boots and dishpans, 
baking and gun powder, beside all kinds of edibles in 
cans. In the rear was a room with a sawdusted floor 
about a foot below the level of the other room, and here 
were dispensed liquid refreshments, while on. all sides, 
above' and below, the space was encroached upon by big 
bags and barrels of staple supplies. 
The proprietor, who was barkeeper as well, was ex- 
tremely emphatic in his denunciations of some unknown 
party or parties who had effected an entrance into this 
sanctum the night before, by prying some fly-screen stuff 
from a window, and, as he supposed, helping him, or 
themselves, to what they wanted— the joke of the thing 
being that he had been unable to find out what they did 
want,' since, after diligent search, he could not dkscover 
that anything had been taken. The money in his strong 
box (a cigar box without a cover in plain sight behind the 
bar) had not. apparently, been meddled with, and nothing 
else .seemed to be missing. He hadn't taken the trouble 
tc nail up the screen again, but with loud animadversions 
on the advance of "civilization," threatened to lie in wait 
. \\ith a rifle and a bear trap if there were any more 
"fooli!5hness." 
That portion of our stage load which hailed from Chi- 
cago had arranged for a "private conveyance," which left 
Mrs. myself and one other passenger (Misery) to be 
disposed of ; we were therefore stowed in a light wagon 
,which just held four, and putting Misery on the seat with 
the driver, we set out in the morning on a rather hot and 
dusty ride. Misery, however, tortured the driver, and 
that, made the time pass more pleasantly. To do her jus- 
tice,, though, she got off a conundrum yesterday none of 
us had heard, and gave me a chance to perpetrate one a 
man, had told me thirty years ago. Hers was, "What are 
the. three quickest ways of spreading the news? Tele- 
graph, telephone, tell a woman." 
,,The Grayling Inn is "just outside the Park," but 
whether that means a rnile pr a f-ew yards, I don't know ; 
there was [HO triumpl^al arch in our honor at the entrance, 
and after a ride of some hours over a country not par- 
ticularlv i-emarkable for anything, we arrived at the 
Fountain House, making a detour just before reaching it 
to look at the Paint Pots, Firehole Lake and RIack War- 
rior Geyser. I could discover no resemblance to a black 
.or j^ny other colored warrior, and the fire hole was full 
, of,. water, but,, tlie paint pots did look for all the world like 
boiling . paint. There was also a certain "Mushroom 
Geyser," -yvhich Misery was very anxious to see, on the 
general principle of getting her money's worth, hut for 
some reason we fell between two (toad) stools as it were 
and didn't get , there. As the geysers were only pools of 
boiling water, they were not sp interesting that we felt 
' compelled to see , every last one. The geyser country is not 
replete with picturesqueness, being composed principally 
of discolored deposits of silica and lime left by the over- 
flow and cooling of the heated water. Everything, there- 
fore, in the immediate vicinity of a geyser is as absolutely 
wlDare of vegetation, as a cement , cellar, and., the, air is full 
of the odor of wash day. The geysers, broadly speaking, 
are built on two plans : one a 'chamber deep down in the 
earth, where steam gradually accumulates until it grows 
powerful enough to force the water (above: it,_ through a 
more or less crooked and contracted chamiel, out into the 
air with a tremendous roar. The other on the champagne 
glass principle, a wide shallow basin like an open trurnpet 
■flower, and a deep center, through which the steam rises: 
r:and breaks eontinuou.sly as the bubbles ©.f champagne do. 
I The "gushers" when quiescent, look like a mound of 
. discolored plaster, with an irregular hole, in the top. but 
the boiling kmd have their bowls ornamented Avith all the 
colors of." the rainbow, like a, mussel , shell, and rather 
darker and more intense than mother-of-pearl, as a rul^i 
though some were very delicate in- their coloring. 
After getting located at the hotel, we .strolled around a 
little and devoted considerable time,. .very -pleasantly to 
watching .some of the smaller geysers (they w^re much 
larger than any we had ever seen before), which played, 
at frequent intervals to heights varying from a few inches 
'• to ten leet. ' Oii!e, the Clepsydra (water ■cl0ck)i was par- 
ticularly complaisant, and played in the most .engaging- 
manner for our sole benefit, and somevvhere on our jour- 
ney' (It is''impossib1e""f6 iffetai'n any-tlefar-'idfea' of -the geo- - 
• graphv),-SVe^saw a paii^'^high •'MVi; **««i[Hfte*ife*''*'Mama, 
"Baby;" l3ecaii#~#fei|^vef 'tteiaf-^i5n*^f^wRJch wp 
some feet in diameter, gushed, the sraallef one adjoining, 
which was only inches in diameter, gushed also a few 
seconds later, and in proportion to its size, as a little child- 
imitates the motions of its mother. 
Quite late in the afternoon Mrs. Chicago came to tell 
us that the Fountain Geyser, the largest in the Park, was 
scheduled to "gush" in a short time, and that a coach 
was waiting to take those who wished to gaze upon it at 
fifty cents per "gaze." That wasn't exactly the way she 
put it, but that .was what it amounted to. The distance 
is about tliree-quarters of a mile, and on the way the 
coach stopped at the Surprise Geyser, a pool that re- 
mains placid until something is thrown into it, when it 
breaks into silvery bubbles in the track of the intruder. It 
i:; one of the prettiest surprises in the Park. This geyser 
deposits on the bottom of its shallow basin, concretions 
which look like white pebbles. From the circumstance 
of the driver plunging his bare arm into the water, I 
judge it to be much less heated than most of those I 
tested. Some of the highly colored literature published 
for the benefit of "gee?ers" shows this geyser in a mag- 
nificent state of eruption, but we saw no signs of any 
such action, nor did the driver say anything about its 
doing anything more than boil when pebbles were thrown 
in. It is given in the list of active geysers, but with an 
uncertain interval, and it may be that this is where the 
surprise really comes in. 
By the way, there are no trees that any one would want 
to carry away, no^ glorious weeds, and almost no flowers'. 
Trees are like telegraph poles, and there is no under- 
growth. Millions and milions of feet of timber have 
fallen, with more millions of burnt skeletons than won't 
decay, but will stand, a blot on the landscape for years to 
come. What to do with the dead and fallen timber is a 
problem which I fear will never be solved. It is of no 
use to any one, and would cost a million dollars to re- 
move, and the snows of winter and the fires of .summer 
add to its mass faster by far than decay can diminish it. ' 
The Fountain Geyser was reached after a time, and 
there were mild symptoms of disturbance on its surface 
which the driver said surely portended an eruption very 
soon. The water we were told would gush to the height 
of a hundred feet. There was considerable delay in the 
performance, but so much was evidently being done by the 
geyser in the way of preparation that we ail waited with 
patience, and we were at length rewarded. 
With a grandly increasing roar and volume the mass 
of water rose in the air, not quite as high as they said it 
did, I think, but about eighty feet, with a diameter at the 
base of-a hundred, and played like a gigantic fountain for 
several minutes, while clouds of steam floated away over 
the "formation," then it gradually subsided, and the show 
was over. It was our first view of a real geyser, and 
though it had been a little spoiled by the exaggeration 
of the drivers, etc., it grows larger and more satisfying 
as we look back upon it. 
We returned to the hotel in time for dinner, the driver 
of one of the coaches taking the precaution to collect the 
"fifty per" before we left the geyser, which seemed to 
show a lack of faith in the probity of the average tourist.. 
Fie probably understood his business. 
In settling my bill at the hotel next morning, I paid for 
board and lodging for the rest of the trip in the Park, 
getting in exchange for my good coin a couple of cards 
which nearly everybody seemed to desire to pimch holes 
in, but the system is somewhat irregular, as at some 
places they declined to make any holes, and simply took 
the numbers. • _ ' 
It was at this — the Fountain — hotel that Mrs, *** di^=- 
played that recldess disregard of danger when in the pur- 
suit of art which so distinguishes her. We were informed, 
probably by Misery, who was indefatigable, that a number 
of entirely untamed specimens of the genus "bar" of the 
species "black" were in the habit of breakfasting and 
supping on the tin cans and other relics of our feasts, 
M'hich were deposited some distance in the rear of the 
hotel. 
I had, up to the time of which I speak, lost no bears, and 
my natural timidity would have prompted me to remain 
where I was; but heartened by the dauntless bearing of 
Mrs, who being a very small woman, naturally fears 
nothing, and Misery's childlike confidence in the good 
nature of bears, I accompanied these redoubtable females 
on their morning call. 
There zvere bears, more than any of us had ever seen 
together at one time in our lives, and they were certainly 
not tame. They were of all sorts and conditions, from 
solitary and very stolid looking gentlemen, to the watch- 
ful mother with a pair of rollicking cubs. This lady 
seemed to regard all the world with a liberal measure of 
disapprobation. Upon sight of Misery the cubs scrambled 
up the nearest tree, with a rattle of claws that sounded 
bke castanets, accompanied by snarls and growls, as large 
and emphatic as they could make them, while the old 
lady, stationing herself at the foot, greeted every bear 
that approached with a sight of her teeth and a taste of 
"the .Eptigh side of her tongue." , 
Tlie hinjian visitors had the wit to keep at a respectful 1 
dista'ii'de from this touching picture of maternal solicitude, ■ 
but the' ardor of the camera fiend was not entirely to be 
overcome, and Mrs. *** and Misery approached so near 
tP;, sonie bears feefling, as to get them on the plate large 
' enough to be visible to the naked eye. A scientific friend 
wtli' a differential ' r'lile, atid a lot of abstruse calcula^ 
tions figured out that the camera and the bear were sixty 
feet apart, but I am; sure the distance ; was less. Accord- 
iug to my count there were eleven bears attending this! 
matineej but Mrs. *** detected two others rnore timid in 
the shades of the woods. ' ' 
■ As we> bent' our steps toward the- hotel again,- -v^e found , 
1 th^at a paitriarchal looking bear was between us and our' 
(lestination,, and was slowly and with dignity pacing along 
the path that led to it. At a respectful distance we fol- 
lowed hiril, carefully abstaining from anything likely to 
give him the idea that we considered his presence anJntru- 
, siouii In |f-gict,|,.we, erideaYOred, to. convince him., that we 
..j^eg^rd^ci it as, an hpaor. to appear in, his _ train. As fari 
asdisfahce 'went, there wais' fiothing to prevent' our taking 
•■ a picflit^ 6f"'t!he geritlemaH,' but there Was a lack Of expres-, 
, si**: about; the-ehd p'resented to us; whichjmd:de->it doubt- 
1 ,.{ui; tha.t the.pietiir,e would- he. recognized as a.,speaking 
likene.?s,..'VV^- fpllovyed him. for,, a hmdjed yards or so, 
when he'ob'ligingly turned off apd dj?ftppeared aniong th": 
I 
