Feb. 8, 1908.] 
FOREST AND STREAM 
It rained most of the night at Tower Falls- 
snowing higher up on the mountains to be 
pressed—but on the whole we had a quiet night 
ind sound sleep. When the rain ceased about 
) 0 clock A. M., Sept. 16, we packed up and 
>egan the ascent of the Mt Washburn range. 
7 or a few miles the trail followed an open 
idge, exposing us to a northeast blizzard, ac- 
ompanied with snow. After descending into the 
rulch up which the trail leads to the pass in 
he range, the snow' became deeper, and toward 
he summit of the range it was eighteen or 
vventy inches—knee—deep, which compelled us 
0 dismount and lead the horses, as the ascent 
;as very hard on them. In view of future pos- 
ibilities we had to save their energies as much 
s possible. It was one of the most laborious 
ay’s work of my experience. Fortunately when 
ear the summit, going through open pine tim¬ 
er, we discovered a large bear approaching us. 
le was passing along the side of the steep 
lountain to the left about on a level and would 
ave passed out of safe range. I immediately 
ismounted and cut across as rapidly as the snow 
id uphill admitted, to intercept him. He had 
pt discovered us. When within about 100 yards, 
atching my opportunity through the timber, I 
died away at his side. He was hit, but not 
ortally. As my after experience told me, those 
.-ars when hit always either roll down hill or 
P “on the jump.” On the jump this bear 
me, passing about twenty yards in our front, 
cartridge was ready, arid against Jack’s in¬ 
unction, “Don’t shoot,” I fired, yet it failed to 
op him, and Jack turned loose with his re¬ 
iser, I shooting rapidly with my rifle. By the 
me the bear had reached the gulch he went no 
rther. 
The excitement caused by this incident and 
y enthusiasm on killing my first grizzly—for I 
■limed the bear—dispelled at once all feelings 
hardship and fatigue. The bear was a grizzly 
about 400 pounds weight, fat and with a fine 
It. We had not time to skin him, nor could 
2 hide have been packed. After getting a few 
-aks. a piece of skin from over the shoulder 
d one of his fore paws, we continued our 
>orious ascent of the mountain. Still excited 
this incident, the work now was in the nature 
a labor of love. Passing over the summit 
id down a quarter of a mile through snow 
■I a foot deep, there were evident fresh pony 
cks^in the snow on the trail made by an ani- 
il that had passed on up the gulch to our 
ht. Jack was called up, and as we were ser- 
tsly discussing the situation a most unearthly 
'■md proceeded from up the gulch which caused 
to grasp our rifles and feel for cartridge 
t s - In a short time that unearthly blast 
'tnded forth again, from the same direction. 
this time ending with a “he-haw, he-haw.” 
e mystery was dispelled, the voice was recog- 
fd. It was the voice of the army mule. He 
1 discovered by scent the presence of our 
fit and soon came trotting down the trail, the 
loodiment of joy and good fellowship. He 
ned out to be a big Missouri or Kentucky 
lle > si ^een hands high, that had “broken down” 
ler his pack and had been turned loose by 
ward s command and was endeavoring to fol- 
on. He was a very forlorn looking animal, 
council of war decided he would soon per- 
in these deep snows. Jack Bean said the 
Q- M. at Fort Ellis were paying $30 for de¬ 
livery of all such animals. I told him that I 
would help to carry him along and he could get 
the $30 for him; so we took him along and 
camped as soon as the snow became so little deep 
that the horses could get feed in a little meadow 
where camp was located. 
There was an abundance of dry pine and a 
rousing fire to dry us out was soon in full blast. 
The day had not been cold, but the rain, snow 
and wind made it appear so. We made fine beds 
of pine bows, but I ate too much bear and did 
not rest well. That bear was taking post-mor¬ 
tuary revenge on each of us. 
We reached the Grand Falls of the Yellow¬ 
stone and spent a part of the morning there. I 
have seen Niagara, Montmorency, Minnehaha, 
the Great Falls of the Missouri and these falls. 
Niagara is pre-eminent in grandeur, but its great 
volume and evidence of power and force have 
always inspired me with a feeling of fear and 
dread. The falls of the Missouri are next in 
grandeur, while these falls are a combination of 
the grand and beautiful, with great volume in 
times of high water and a clear width of about 
150 feet and 360 feet single leap. Prof. Hayden, 
who first measured their height, gives it as 396 
feet. The canon below these falls is not less not¬ 
able than the falls that give it cause. At the 
water level its width is about 250 feet; from 
above the stream appears like a silvery thread. 
From the water’s edge the sides of the canon 
slope back at an angle of 35 degrees to 45 de¬ 
grees and to a height of about 150 feet. To the 
feeling called forth by the grandeur of these 
walls is added that of admiration for the beau¬ 
tiful and varied colorings given out by their 
geological formations. 
I have seen all the many canons of the Conti¬ 
nental Divide above the Union Pacific Railroad. 
None, however, compares in everything that makes 
these wonders of nature notable and grand, to 
the canon of the Clark’s Fork of the Yellow¬ 
stone, just above the debouchment of that stream 
from the mountains. Its length is about eigh¬ 
teen miles. The lower six miles has sides slop¬ 
ing on the east at about 30 degrees, the high peak 
on that side being about 3,000 feet above the 
water level, there being room in the canon only 
sufficient for a trail. The upper twelve miles of 
the canon is inclosed by solid walls of reddish 
granite almost vertical, with a width of about 
1,000 feet at top. At the lower end of this part 
of the canon the height of the walls is about 
1.500 feet above water level, as attested by a 
railway survey up the western side. In this 
part some large masses of granite are found of 
at least 300 cubic yards capacity, whose angles 
are as sharp and as little worn as if disrupted 
from the cliffs only yesterday. 
The canon has one unusual feature; a tribu¬ 
tary of sufficient volume to be classed as a river 
approaches from the south, rushing through walls 
of granite 100 feet wide at the top and »6oo feet 
deep and leaps out from the wall of the canon 
at least 300 feet above water level, the upper 
200 feet being by a beautiful cascade. The 
lower 100 feet passes over broken masses of 
granite lying at an angle of about 40 degrees. 
1 his canon lies out of the traveled route, and 
a laborious day’s work is needed to ascend and 
descend to the level of the valley of this tribu¬ 
tary. 
We could not tarry long at the Great Falls, 
and took only a look at the second falls, about 
209 
one-quarter of a mile above and 115 feet clear 
cascade. A few miles further on we passed near 
the camp where McCartney had buried his friend, 
and thence out into the prairie, extending to 
the mud geysers up stream, and away to the 
dividing ridge between the Yellowstone waters 
and Fire Hole waters—the head of Madison 
River. The depth of the snow and other cir¬ 
cumstances determined me not to go further to¬ 
ward Yellowstone Lake, for the sight of lakes 
was no novelty and we would see an abundance 
of geysers to the Lower Geyser basin, crossing 
the divide at head of Alum Creek. Passing 
through a good deal of snow*we camped in the 
Alum Creek group of geysers at head of that 
creek. The most interesting sight in this group 
was a jet of steam passing up through waters 
of the creek, making a noise similar to that of 
the blower of a locomotive. 
The night was clear and cold, freezing water 
to an inch depth. We slept in comfort and 
awoke with a dense fog enveloping us, caused 
by the steam of the spluttering geysers. 
On Sept. 17 we climbed the mountain to the 
Pass of Mountains, beyond which is the water¬ 
shed of the Fire Hole River. Up to this time we 
had been constantly on the lookout for Indian 
sign, and especially on the qui vive for the band 
of the 100 Bannock scouts, reported as having 
deserted General Howard. On the summit we 
expected to strike the trail where they would ’ 
probably have passed if in this part of the park. 
On the summit of the range we crossed this 
trail and were gratified to find no sign of any¬ 
thing passing after that made by Colonel Gil¬ 
bert’s cavalry in its effort to overtake General 
Howard’s command. 
We descended into the valley of the East Fork 
of Fire Hole River—now named Nez Perce 
Creek—by the wagon road cut out by Howard’s 
command, and were soon out of the snow, for 
the valley of Fire Hole is nearly 1,000 feet lower 
than the Yellowstone- River above the falls. We 
passed near the scene of the massacre of a por¬ 
tion of the Cowan party before alluded to. We 
also scared up one or two wild Indian ponies, 
left by the hostiles, that by their speed and ac¬ 
tivity to avoid the white man, showed no evi¬ 
dence of wishing to be rescued, as was the case 
of the lone army mule. This was an unpleasant 
sign. Reaching the lower Fire Hole basin be¬ 
fore noon we went into camp and spent the re¬ 
mainder of the day in visiting various geysers 
of this wonderful formation, against the advice 
of Bean, who was for camping that night at 
the upper geysers ten miles further on. 
Seeing no Indian sign in the day’s travel ex¬ 
cept the ponies, we had a quiet and restful night, 
and by noon on the 18th we were among the 
Upper Geyser group and spent the remainder of 
the day in wonder and admiration of what was 
seen. * 
On the morning of the 19th we packed up and 
started on our return trip to Bozeman. After 
nooning at Lower Geysers we passed on down 
the Fire Hole Valley. In about five miles a fresh 
po'ny track was noticed coming in from the west 
side and at a trot. In a short distance another 
pony track was observed going in the opposite 
direction and leaving the trail to the west. This 
was interpreted as meaning that a party of In¬ 
dians for some cause had been left behind by 
the hostiles, and that they were hidden in the 
dense pine timber on the west of the trail and 
