EXPLORATIONS IN YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK 
59 
ginia Cascade (some 60 feet high) will probably prevent the ascent of fish (see plate 
XIX). Below these cascades is the open valley of the Xotris Geyser Basin, and still 
lower a broad meadow known as Elk Park. Several miles below Elk Park in a narrow 
canon is the Gibbon Falls (80 feet high), a picturesque cataract, which trout cer- 
tainly can not ascend (see plate XX). i^bove this fall are no trout, but an abundance 
of blob, or miller’s thumb {Coitus hairdi punctidatus)^ and it is not easy to explain how 
they come to be there. Below the falls trout are abundant and, as in the Madison, 
grayling are said to be found. 
Canon Creelc, a small clear stream, very cold and with grassy bottom, joins the 
Gibbon Eiver below the falls. This stream flows through steep pastures, without 
falls except near its source. It is 6 to 8 feet wide and 1 to 3 deep, and is well stocked 
with trout. In this stream the blob is very abundant, absolutely swarming in the 
grass. 
Firehole River, about twice the size of Gibbon Eiver, joins it from the south. 
“ This stream heads just west of Shoshone Lake, separated from it and from the head 
of Bechler Eiver by relatively low divides ” (Gannett). It flows through a small lake 
nearly dry in summer (Madison Lake), below which it receives a fine clear tributary 
from the east (Spring Creek). Along Firehole Eiver are the most noteworthy of the 
geyser basins, aud a great volume of hot water is poured into it without, however, 
rendering its waters at any point really warm, the average being probably 55° to tiOo. 
In its upper course, the Firehole, like the Spring Creek, is a clear and very cold 
stream flowing through dense woods, with narrow marshy valleys, alternating with 
small canons. In this part of the stream 1,000 Loch Leveu trout {Sahno frutta Jeven- 
ensis) were i>lanted in September, 1889. Keppler’s Cascades, above the upper geyser 
basin is a series of three or four very picturesque falls, some of them probably impass- 
able to trout (see plate XXI). In the upper geyser basin the Firehole Eiver receives 
the drainage of a multitude of hot springs, besides two considerable streams, also of 
mixed cold aud hot water, the Iron Spring Creek and the Little Firehole Eiver. The 
stream is here very clear. It is full of plants and other organisms, aud its waters 
have a taste of decayed vegetation. Even at the midway geyser basin the stream is 
probably not too warm for trout. At the lower basin the Firehole receives the waters 
of Sentinel Creek, Fairy Creek, and the larger Xez Perc6 Creek. The latter, which 
comes in from the east, is nearly half as large as the Firehole aud similar as to charac- 
ter and temperature of the water. It is fed by numerous short streams, some of them 
hot, and most of them confined to a narrow canon. Some five miles below the mouth 
of the Xez Perc6 the Firehole, now a large river 2 to 3 rods wide aud 2 to 5 feet deep, 
enters a wild canon with banks of rough lava. In this canon are the imposing falls of 
the Firehole, about 60 feet in height (see plate XXII), and forming an effective bar- 
rier to the ascent of fishes. Below this falls the common Ashes of the Madison Eiver, 
trout, whiteflsh, grayling, aud blob, are said to be abundant. Lower down on the 
Madison Eiver collections were made by Mr. E. E. Lucas, and a series of specimens 
given to us with the following notes : 
“On October 2, 1 collected from Horsethief Spring 2,000 whiteflsh, which I planted 
next day in the Twin Lakes. Horsethief Spring heads in the Divide in Montana and 
flows miles, emptying into the Xorth Fork of the Madison Eiver. The first lialf 
mile of this stream is of a rocky bottom, with no growth of moss or grass. The second 
half mile is of white sandy bottom, completely filled with a growth of moss aud some 
