The Washburn Yellowstone Expedition, No. I [pp. 431-437]

432 THE WASHBURN YELLOWSTONE EXPEDITION. [MAY,
cend that river. During the day the
party traveled in detachments. Three
hunters kept several miles ahead; next,
were two skirmishers in front of the
main body; and a half-mile farther back,
came the main body itself, together with
the pack- train. As the sklirmishers
neared the river they discovered three
Crows; not sitting on a tree, but riding
in their direction. With keen military
sagacity, they appreciated the position,
and rallied on the main body with astonishing rapidity. This movement was
much commended by parties who had
had experience in our "late unpleasantness."
For many miles, both up and down
the river, on the side opposite Botteller's, the mountains rise somewhat abruptly, bold and rugged, to a height of
three or four thousand feet above the
river. Clumps of pines and cedars are
scattered over them. They remind one
very much of the grandeur and massiveness of the Sierra Nevada Range. A
recent snow-storm had thrown a robe
of purity over the scene, which rendered
it more than ordinarily beautiful.
From this point we followed the old
Indian trail, leading up the left bank of
the Yellowstone. It was generally from
a fourth to a half-mile distant from the
river-bank, and near the first line of
bluffs, which bound the valley or river
bottom. During the day we crossed
three small streams, designated as Twomile Creek and Eight-mile Creek -Nos.
One and Two-being about those distances from Botteller's. At one place
the trail crossed a rocky point, more
than three hundred feet above the river, which there ran beside a precipice.
The view was exceedingly fine. The
valley was in sight from the mouth of
the cai-o;z, eight miles above, to a point
at least forty miles below. The course
of the river could be plainly discerned
by an unbroken line of willows, stretching away to the north -east, while in the
background the lofty, snow-capped peaks
glistened midway between the earth and
the cloudless firmament above. We
camped at the mouth of the cation,
where the Yellowstone issues from the
mountains. Above that point there is
no open country, until you reach the
basin of the great lake.
During the day plenty of small game
was killed, and the fishing was found to
be excellent. Trout and white-fish were
abundant-and such trout! They can
only be found in the neighborhood of
the Rocky Mountains, and on the Pacific Slope. Few of them weighed less
than two pounds, and many of them
over three. They had not been educated up to the fly; but when their attention was respectfully solicited to a
transfixed grasshopper, they seldom failed to respond.
During the pleasant evening, and the
long summer twilight peculiar to a northern latitude, some made rough sketches
of the magnificent scenes by which we
were surrounded; others wrote up their
notes of the trip, while the rest serenely
smoked their pipes, and listened to reminiscences from each other of by-gone
times, or other scenes somewhat similar
to those we then enjoyed.
The day following we continued our
way through the calTo;z, up the river,
which there wound around to the east.
The trail kept near the river, was very
rough, and went over several high, rocky
points. Distant views were shut out by
the mountains, which constantly surrounded us. The only features of unusual interest seen during the day were a
beautiful, snow-capped mountain, at least
ten thousand feet above the sea, and the
Devil's Slide, similar to a feature so
named in Echo Cafion, on the Union
Pacific Railroad, but vastly exceeding
that one in size. Two perpendicular
walls of mud and rock run directly down
a mountain. They are about half a mile
long, and the larger one a hundred feet