As soon as he could get out - having a story to finish first - 
he elevated himself into the saddle and like a mighty hero led 
the party out. We found the trail a horribly bad one - al- 
most impassible - over mountains and through fallen timber. 
Four miles travel brought us to the foot of Mt . Ellis. Climb- 
ing the side of which we passed around to the left of the summit 
and, descended a precipitous slope. 
The Odometer was now left far behind and Colonel Steven- 
son fretted very much at our rate of speed. With many in- 
teresting episodes and much fine scenery, we hurried on and 
about four o T clock caught our first glimpse of a lake. Uestled 
in a deep valley among the mountains it recalled forcibly my 
impressions of Switz scenery. It was indeed a very small lake, 
scarcely more than a pond apparently., everything else about be- 
ing built on so large a scale. Almost all the mountain slopes 
are covered with trees, but bordering the valley on the South 
is a mountain range that lifted its bare, broken volcanic peaks 
far up above the surrounding ridges. Passing dovn a fresh 
green meadow through which a clear stream of water flowed, we 
came upon the camp of Col. Baker, commander of Fort Ellis, noted 
as the exterminator of a Piegan Indian town. He with some friends 
had been spending a few days here. We passed around to the 
best and Soutn of the lake and camped on a bare plateau a hundred 
feet or more aoove the lake level. Disposing of our stock we 
hastened down to fish for trout. The lake is literally full of 
them and we had some very fine ones, if not for supper at least 
