i 
. « 
Sailing on the Yellowstone Lake 
By COL. W 
[See "Yellowstone Park in Early Days,” in 
T HE hurried trip made through the Yellow¬ 
stone National Park in September, 1879. 
only intensified my desire to more fully 
investigate its wonders, but at a more propitious 
season of the year. 
In pursuance of this desire, two other trips 
were afterward made, each one devoted to points 
of much interest, not studied the previous sea¬ 
son. 
The first trip made, in 1879, was by the West 
Gallatin River to its head, thence dropping over 
into the valley of the Madison River and up its 
principal tributary, the Fire Hole River, to the 
Lower and Upper Geyser basins. That year 
a month was delightfully spent in the park, after 
which, about Sept. 1, I went down to the plains 
bordering the Lower Yellowstone, by way of 
Clark’s Fork of the Yellowstone. 
The second trip was made during the season 
cif 1880. I went up the Madison River, thence, 
by a low pass, over the Continental Divide, 
camping on July 4 on that beautiful sheet of 
water. Henry’s Lake, the head of one of the 
principal tributaries of Snake River. Six days 
were spent at this camp, during which we sub¬ 
sisted principally on trout, of which there was 
great abundance, and enjoyed observing the 
habits of the swans, grand birds that were nest¬ 
ing around this lake as well as around the 
smaller lakes in the vicinity. 
On July 10, I passed down the Snake River, 
one day’s journey; thence up the Thirsty Fork 
of that stream to its head, again crossing the 
Continental Div ide on July 16, at that date pass¬ 
ing over snow front three to ten feet deep. The 
passage could be made only very early in the 
morning, at a time when the snow was crusted 
over by the previous night’s frost. This summit 
was comparatively flat. Where small prairies 
were passed, the ground was bare from the 
action of the sun, which shows the value of 
pine forests in conserving the winter’s snows 
for purposes of irrigation. A descent of about 
three thousand feet was made in one day to 
the Upper Geyser basin, a few miles distant. 
About two and one-half months were spent in 
various portions of the park on this trip. 
On these two trips our transportation was a 
pack outfit of three to four pack horses, with a 
load per pack of 150 to 200 pounds. The 
luxury of such a means of travel can only be 
fully appreciated by those who have tried wheel 
transportation for such trips. With packs, you 
D. PICKETT 
1‘orest and Stream for Feb. 8 .—Editor.] 
can go anywhere in the mountains, traveling 
by any trail that can be followed by an elk and 
with all the essential comforts of life. 
In passing out of the park, we crossed the 
high mountain range on the west of the Yellow¬ 
stone Lake, on Sept. 30. and in twelve miles 
dropped down between three and four thousand 
feet by a most precipitous trail, to the gorge 
made by the north fork of the Stinking River, 
a tributary of the Big Horn River. In this 
gorge, of between fifty and sixty miles in length, 
is to be seen the grandest and most interesting 
canon and mountain scenery that I have seen 
in the entire Continental Divide north of the 
Union Pacific railroad. 
Six weeks of most enjoyable experiences were 
spent on this stream, and we were only driven 
out on Nov. 14 by the deep snows. Game of all 
kinds—especially elk and mountain trout— 
were found in great abundance. Large bear 
of the grizzly type, with dark pelts, the hair 
tipped with gray, were fairly abundant. • The 
writer killed eight of the largest size of this 
bear, two of which were very dangerous. At 
this writing the Government has completed 
here a beautiful turnpike road. 
From the camp on the Elk Fork, one of the 
largest southern tributaries of this stream, we 
came back to the main stream, and thence down 
through the last part of the canon, where it 
was very narrow. Here were encountered a 
large band of elk, about 150 in number. It so 
happened we were short of meat and. in fact, of 
provisions of every kind, and it would have been 
very handy to supply ourselves with meat here, 
but that we could not pack it. The skins of 
the eight bears more than took up, in weight, the 
place of the grub consumed. It was therefore 
thought a very good scheme to keep the elk 
ahead of us, and to kill one near our next camp. 
1 he elk took in the situation at once. About 
one-half the band were seen climbing the steep 
mountain side on the right—the other half 
bunched together in the valley and headed our 
way. 1 he writer was ahead, packs following, 
and as the elk approached, he rode out of the 
trail in an endeavor to head them off, not think¬ 
ing of the pack horses following. The elk were 
not to be turned back, but came on with a rush, 
through, and among the pack horses, and like 
an avalanche took with them all the pack- 
horses except one, “Old Red,” who. being 
partially blind, his caution overcame his desire 
to join in the stampede. We followed rapidly, 
for our all—grub, bedding and clothes—were 
with the packs. In about one mile they were 
overtaken, after having passed the Elk Horn 
Creek—with fifty yards of ice—and stopped from 
utter exhaustion on the far side. George 
Herendeen, an expert and accomplished packer, 
examined the packs, and wonderful to tell, 
found there were very few things lost, and only 
two of the four packs required repacking. Ordi¬ 
narily those horses could not have been forced i 
across that ice. We were soon in proper shape 
and made a good drive, getting almost out of 
the deep snow. I have ventured to mention 
this incident, as in all my Northwestern ex¬ 
perience no similar incident was ever heard of. 
Such incidents have been known where herds of 
buffalo have taken horses along. 
As an indication of the apparent hardships 
encountered in those days in winter traveling, 
I will give same facts of my trip around the 
foothills of the Absoraka Range, to winter 
quarters in Bozeman, Montana. 
Our first camp, after leaving the gorge, was 
on the South Fork of this stream, about four 
miles above its junction with the main stream, 
where a cold snap lasting about a week over¬ 
took us, with a minimum temperature of 32 
degrees below zero. As soon as the weather 
“let up” a little, a start was made; crossing 
the main Stinking Water just below the lower 
canon, about the present town of Cody. On 
looking down into the gorge just before cross- 
ing. I was astonished to see a clear, running 
mountain torrent without even a fringe of ice 
on its borders. This same stream had just been 
crossed above 'this canon over ice three or four 
feet thick. On investigating, the water was 
warmish, with a distinctive sulphurous taste, 
with a decided perfume of sulphuretted hydro¬ 
gen, that was in evidence for miles. In passing 
through this canon of three miles in length, the 
water comes in contact with beds of sulphur or 
minerals bearing sulphuric acid that causes this 
change in temperature and odor. The Indian 
gave this stream a name, based on these pe¬ 
culiarities, which in English is “Stinking Water 
River, ’ and it should have been retained. It 
is honest, if not euphonious. 
From Nov. 23 to Dec. 6 another cold snap 
enveloped 11s, culminating in a minimum tem¬ 
perature of 40 degrees below zero, when at the 
Crow Agency; with many intermediate tempera¬ 
tures between 20 and 30 degrees below zero. 
Of course in the extreme temperatures, we did 
not travel, but lay up in some willow brush, 
where there was abundant firewood, except on 
Nov. 24, with a minimum at daylight of—27 de¬ 
grees, we traveled fifteen miles. (Note in diary, 
“No wind and pleasant traveling.”) Our protec¬ 
tion at night against the cold and storms, was 
a wall tent twelve by fourteen feet area, with a 
