FISH-CULTURAL INVESTIGATIONS IN MONTANA AND WYOMING. 
27 
at 1, was found to connect with, the one from the other fork at 2, and by the next 
morning a good-sized stream was flowing from the South Fork of Atlantic Creek into 
Pacific Creek. The lower portion of this channel contained a little seepage water, and 
it is certain a live stream had been flowing through it earlier this season. 
Besides the old channels already mentioned there are evidences of several others 
which, during even ordinary water, would connect the two creeks. As already stated, 
the pass is a nearly level meadow, covered with a heavy growth of grass and many 
small willows 1 to 3 feet high. While it is somewhat marshy in places, it has nothing 
of the nature of a lake about it. Of course, during wet weather the small springs in the 
meadow would be stronger, but the important fact is that neither Atlantic nor Pacific 
Creek rises in the meadow. Atlantic Creek, in fact, comes into the pass as two good- 
sized streams from two different directions and leaves it by at least four channels, 
thus making an island of a considerable portion of the meadow. 
Pacific Creek is a strong stream long before reaching the pass, and its course 
through the meadow is well fixed, but not so with Atlantic Creek, The west bank of 
each fork is liable to break through almost anywhere and thus send a part of its water 
across to Pacific Creek. It is probably true that one or more branches connect the 
two creeks under ordinary conditions, and that in times of high water a very much 
greater portion of Atlantic Creek flows across to the other. At any rate, it is certain 
that there has been, and usually is, a free waterway through Two-Ocean Pass of such 
a character as to permit fishes to pass easily and readily from the Snake River over to 
the Yellowstone — or in the opposite direction. Indeed, it is possible, barring certain 
falls, for a fish so inclined to start at the mouth of the Columbia, travel up that great 
river to its principal tributary, the Snake, continue on up through the long, tortuous 
course of that stream, and, under the shadows of the Grand Tetons, enter the cold 
waters of Pacific Creek, by which it could journey on up to the very crest of the Great 
Continental Divide, to Two-Ocean Pass; through this pass it may have a choice of 
two routes to Atlantic Creek, where it begins the journey downstream ; soon it reaches 
the Yellowstone River, down which it continues through Yellowstone Lake, then 
through the lower Yellowstone out into the turbid waters of the Missouri; for many 
hundred miles it may continue down this mighty river before reaching the Mississippi, 
the Father of Waters, through which it may finally reach the Gulf of Mexico — a won- 
derful journey of over 5,800 miles, by far the longest possible fresh-water journey in 
the world. 
Standing upon the bank of either fork of Atlantic Creek, just above the place of 
the u parting of the waters,” we tossed chips, two at a time, into the stream. Though 
the two chips would strike the water within an inch or so of each other, not infre- 
quently one would be carried by the current to the left, keeping in Atlantic Creek, 
while the other might be carried a little to the right and enter the branch running 
across the meadow to Pacific Creek; the one beginning a journey which will finally 
bring it to the Gulf of Mexico, the other entering upon a long voyage, in the opposite 
direction, to the Pacific. Where Pacific Creek leaves the pass it is about 6 feet wide 
and will average 2 or 3 inches deep, though it is much deeper in many places — in some 
places forming pools 1 to 2 feet deep. Just inside the pass, from a to b, the current 
flowed 268 feet at the rate of l.t feet per second. The two forks of Atlantic Creek 
come together near the east margin of the pass and form a stream much like Pacific 
