828 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Dec. 27, 1913. 
ended one of the most interesting mock trials 
that was ever pulled off around the camp fire of 
the Wylie Way through the great National Re¬ 
serve. The concensus of opinion, so far as the 
writer was able to find out, was, that Texans are 
on to their job as entertainers. We Texans went 
to bed strong in the belief that we had made good, 
and had furnished as much innocent fun to our 
northern friends as an official of the Forest and 
Stream had furnished the Texans in a little city 
of our state at an editors’ convention, when he 
proceeded, in good New York fashion, to “pull 
the badger.” I wonder if the present editor of 
that popular journal knows anything about that 
occurrence! We slept well and were up bright 
and early the next morning to take in the sights 
of the Upper Geyser Basin, to fish and to have a 
good time generally. This basin contains twenty- 
six geysers, and more than four hundred hot 
springs. Here are to be found the Giant and 
Giantess, the Grotto, the Beehive, Grand, Lioness, 
Riverside, Splendid, Castle, Daisy, and Old Faith¬ 
ful geysers. The popular friend of the tourists, 
because of the fact that he erupts every sixty-five 
to seventy minutes, and affords an excellent op¬ 
portunity for observation, is Old Faithful. O’d 
Faithful gives his exhibition day and night, sum¬ 
mer and winter, with rarely a variation of five 
minutes, throwing a stream of hot water about 
two feet in diameter upward to a height of 125 
to 150 feet, when it remains seemingly stationary 
for something like three minutes. It is a most 
beautiful sight at night, when, from the Old 
Faithful Inn near by, the searchlight is turned 
upon it while in eruption. In this basin, besides 
one of the largest of the Wylie’s camps, the 
numerous hot springs and wonderful geysers, is 
the Old Faithful Inn, one of the most costly and 
attractive log houses to be seen anywhere. The 
logs for the most part are rough as they appear 
in their natural state. “Massive logs tapering on 
each ascending balcony appear as giant trees. 
The staircase leading to the lookout has split 
logs for steps. Windows of diamond-shaped 
glass and dainty French curtains are exquisitely 
Feautiful against the setting of rough logs.” In 
the center the building rises eight stories high, 
and from this lofty eminence you have a most 
charming panoramic view of the Upper Geyser 
Basin. It was built at a cost of two hundred 
thousand dollars. The chimney of this immense 
structure has four large and four small fire¬ 
places, and fastened to the chimney is a great 
iron clock that keeps mountain time. But with 
all of the artistic beauty of this inn, and the com¬ 
forts that it apparently, and doubtless did, offer, 
it seemed to me that, for a trip like ours, it did 
not offer the pleasure and delight that are to be 
found in a Wylie camp. After the tramp of sight¬ 
seeing and fishing as the evening came on the 
most of us were ready for the bed. and we did 
not have to take a sedative to assist us into the 
land of Nod. The weather was cold enough to 
make sleeping under a comfort and two or three 
blankets exceedingly comfortable. The sleep you 
get in this climate, at this time of year, July, is 
so refreshing that you awake like a new man, 
ready for any task that comes to hand. So we 
were up by time the next morning with good 
appetites and anxious to start to explore new 
worlds to us on our way to Yellowstone Lake. 
So after a hearty breakfast and considerable 
bustle to get things in shape, we are ready to 
be loaded into our respective vehicles to start 
on a day’s journey that brings to our view some 
of the most charming and beautiful scenery that 
is to be seen on the trip through the Park. We 
start out by the Old Faithful Inn, that marvelous 
structure of which I’ve already spoken, up the 
Madison River, which is called Firehole during 
its meanderings through the geyser basins, with 
mountains magnificent in their grandeur and 
beauty, covered with a very thick pine forest. 
We soon reach one of the lovliest cascades, Kep¬ 
ler, on which the human eye ever looked. The 
water leaps from boulder to boulder in a rocky 
chasm in a series of beautiful falls, the whole 
measuring from 100 to 150 feet in height, whose 
loveliness is enhanced by the dark background 
of forest on either side. As the stories of ancient 
mythology rush in upon the mind it is not diffi¬ 
cult to see the mountain and water nymphs danc¬ 
ing hither and thither upon every side. This is a 
scene that will stay with the observer for the 
years to come. For two miles further we travel 
up the Madison River, then the road leaves the 
river and follows up Spring Creek Canon to 
Craig Pass in a narrow gorge. From this point 
a trail leads in a southern direction to Shoshone 
Lake through Norris Pass. Now we are on the 
Continental Divide, which vast range of moun¬ 
tains, extending from Mexico to Canada, is the 
watershed of the continent, and said to be a 
salient feature of Yellowstone Park—“entering 
near the southwest corner of the Park and ex¬ 
tending northwest between the headwaters of 
Yellowstone River on its eastern slope, and Snake 
River on its western, separating Yellowstone 
Lake from Shoshone Lake by less than a dozen 
miles.” On the summit of this great range, a 
few miles south of Yellowstone Lake, is Two 
Ocean Pond with two outlets, one through the 
Yellowstone and Missouri into the Atlantic, the 
other through Snake River into the Pacific. It 
is impossible to put on the canvas through the 
medium of words the scene that falls upon the 
seeing eye as you look out from Shoshone Point. 
From here you get a view of Shoshone Lake as 
it nestles in its beautiful valley, and its waters 
seem to dance in delightful glee in the midst of 
their wild beauty: you can also get a fair view 
of the three snow-capped peaks of the Teton 
Mountains, which form a portion of the bound¬ 
ary between the states of Idaho and Wyoming, 
some fifty miles distant, their dizzy heights 14,000 
feet, overlooking all other peaks of the Rockies. 
About one mile from the Wylie Lunch Station 
at West Thumb Bay, you catch your first glimpse 
of Yellowstone Lake, “nestled among the forest- 
crowned hills which bound our vision.” Its beau¬ 
tiful waves are gleaming and sparkling in the 
bright and glorious sunlight, and apparently you 
can hear their shouts of joy borne on the wild 
winds that sweep in delightful glee across the 
bosom of the lake. The scene is of transcendental 
beauty, and sends a thrill of sweetest ectasy into 
the soul of the beholder. We soon reach the 
Lunch Stand, hasten to eat our lunch, view the 
things of interest, the hot springs, the paint pots, 
and the geyser cones, one of which is out in the 
lake about ten or twelve feet, on which you can 
stand, catch a trout out of the ice-cold water, 
and without taking it off your hook, cook it in 
the geyser on the cone of which you are stand¬ 
ing, eat it, and be impressed with the thought 
that you have done something that can be done 
nowhere else in the world. We are now away 
to Yellowstone Lake Camp, travelling along the 
lake side. We pass the Natural Bridge on our 
way, which spans a creek; the abutments are 
thirty feet apart, and arch sixty feet high. Just 
before reaching the Lake Hotel, as you look 
down the avenue cut through the forest for the 
roadway, to the eye the avenue seems to extend 
across the lake, presenting to your vision one 
of the most picturesque views that is to be seen 
in your travel through the Park. We soon reach 
the camp, and every lover of piscatorial sport 
hastens to rent him an outfit with which to do 
the work, and to fishing he goes. Did I catch 
any? Well, you should have seen the beautiful 
salmon trout that I lifted, after winding on to 
the reel some hundred and fifty feet of line, over 
the banisters of the bridge that spans Yellowstone 
River just below where it runs out of the lake. 
You may talk of the exhileration that comes to 
the human organism through inhaling the life- 
giving ozone from off the mountain tops, and 
the glow of health that mounts the cheeks of the 
tired and worn traveller as his body is framed 
by the life-inspiring breezes that sweep across 
the Texas plains, but there is nothing in all the 
world, to me, that sets the springs of health and 
vigor in proper adjustment as the thrill, like an 
electric shock, sent through body and brain by 
the long expected, yet unexpected (reconcile the 
paradox if you can) bite of a good-size game 
fish at the other end of my line. Let the weather 
be hot or cold, wet or dry, feeling well or other¬ 
wise when you began, the effect is the same. You 
feel like you can wait an age just to get another 
such thrill, or walk a mile or more further on 
the expectation awakened. 
Indian Harbor Yacht Club’s New Trophy 
The Indian Harbor Yacht Club wishes to 
announce that it will offer a valuable trophy for 
annual interclub matches, for boats built in the 
“R” class under the Universal Rule. The races 
for this trophy are to be sailed in home waters. 
This announcement, coupled with the fact 
that the Corinthian Yacht Club of Marblehead 
has also offered a trophy for the same class bids 
fair to make Class “R” the standard of interclub 
and intercity racing for the coming season. 
The trophy offered by the Corinthian Yacht 
Club of Marblehead for this class is similar to 
the Lipton Cup, but the Indian Harbor Yacht 
Club’s trophy will assume more of an inter¬ 
national character, as all boats rating in this 
class under the universal rule will be eligible, thus 
allowing Canadian yachts to compete. 
These boats have been successfully raced on 
the Great Lakes and many prominent yachtsmen 
feel that boats built in this class are best suited 
for interclub racing, which in many instances 
necessitate the shipment of boats by rail or water. 
At the same time these boats are sufficiently large 
to be comfortable and safe and can be handled 
easily without a large crew. The rule affords a 
possibility to build not only an extremely fast 
boat, but one that is comfortable as a small 
cruiser. 
The expense of building these boats is con¬ 
siderably less than half the cost of the “P” 
class boats, and the expense of running them 
would be proportionately small, and it is the 
opinion of the promoters of this class that on 
account of their efficiency and small cost a great 
many boats will be built and the trophy offered 
by the Indian Harbor Yacht Club will bring them 
together in interclub racing, thus materially pro¬ 
moting a feeling of friendly rivalry and good fel¬ 
lowship among members of the different clubs. 
It is intended that the trophy shall encourage 
the construction of boats of this type not only 
in adjacent waters, but throughout the country, 
and possibly in foreign lands. The competitive 
conditions will be furnished later, but boats rat¬ 
ing in the “R” class, and enrolled in any recog¬ 
nized yacht club, will be eligible. 
In addition to the trophy, which will be 
awarded to the club represented by the success¬ 
ful contender, a very handsome individual tro¬ 
phy will be given to the owner of the successful 
yacht. 
The donors of the trophy feel that the class 
will be most popular and hope that the successful 
yacht or yachts for the coming season will be 
sent to the Panama-American Exposition in 1915. 
A good class is already assured, as four mem- 
(Continued on page 810.) 
