quez till 1854, when they sold it to the Mormons, who burned it in 1857, but it was rebuilt by the United States in 1858. Several forts and camps, six in all, have since been built for the protection of the Union Pacific Railway and the mining settlements. The Territory was organized by Act of Congress, approved July 25, 1868. Its growth has been slow, partly because the Indians were troublesome, and partly because the land was not as easily or successfully cultivated as in some of the other Territories. There had been no serious fighting with the Indians until 1876, when the Sioux, in the extreme northeast of the Territory, in the Black Hills, attacked General Custer's command and completely destroyed it. The Sioux have since been expelled from the Territory, and there are now only a band of the Eastern Shoshones, numbering 1,250 and partially civilized, and a smaller band of the Northern Arapahoes, numbering 900, in the Territory. These are both on the Shoshone Reservation, which contains 1,520,000 acres, with a fair proportion of tillable land, and are peaceable and quiet.

The Territory is deserving of a better reputation than it has had in the past, and will be found desirable for those who are disposed to engage in stock-raising or the breeding of horses; while parties who have some means can invest them very profitably in some of the rich valleys of the Big Horn or Wind River Mountains, and with a moderate irrigation can produce abundant crops, for which they will find a ready home market. The construction of railways, to render the Yellowstone National Park readily accessible, will not only call many thousands to Wyoming, but will greatly increase the demand for agricultural products, which ought to be supplied by Wyoming farmers.

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CHAPTER XXII.

THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK.

SITUATION-BOUNDARIES AND AREA-ITS RECENT DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION -THE ACT OF Congress seTTING IT APART AS A NATIONAL PARK-THE PARK DRAINED INTO THE PACIFIC AND THE GULF OF MEXICO-ITS VOLCANIC CHARACTER-NOT OF MUCH VALUE AS AN AGRICULTURAL REGION-INACCESSIBLE EXCEPT FROM THE NORTH AND WEST-EASTERN PART NOT FULLY EXPLOREDNO MINERAL WEALTH YET DISCOVERED EXCEPT IN THE NORTHEAST CORNERTHE APPROACH TO THE PARK AT THE NORTH-THE CAÑON OF THE YELLOWSTONE, OUTSIDE THE PARK-CINNABAR MOUNTAIN" THE DEVIL'S SLIDE ENTRANCE TO THE PARK-RAPID REVIEW OF THE OBJECTS TO BE VISITED— SEPULCHRE MOUNTAIN-CAÑON OF GARDINER'S RIVER-MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS-TOWer Creek and FALLS-The Columns and Towers of Tower CREEK CAÑON-MOUNT WASHBURN-THE GRAND CAÑON OF THE YELLOWstone-YellowSTONE LAKE-THE LAKES OF THE SOUTHERN Tour, Heart, LEWIS AND SHOSHONE-THE CROSS CUT WHICH AVOIDS THESE THE UPPER AND LOWER GEYSER BASINS of the FIRE HOLE OR UPPer Madison River→ THE GEYSER BASINS OF GIBBON'S FORK-THE WONDERS OF BEAVER LAKE AND THE OBSIDIAN CLIFFS-RETURN TO MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS-TIME IN WHICH THE TRIP CAN BE MADE-THE WONDERS IN DETAIL-MAMMOTH HOT. SPRINGS-MR. STRAHORN'S DESCRIPTION-THE ROUTE TO TOWER CREEK FALLS AND CAÑON-HON. N. P. LANGFORD AND LIEUT. DOANE'S EULOGY OF THEM THE ASCENT TO MOUNT WASHBurn-Rev. Dr. HOYT'S ELOQUENT PICTURE OF THE VIEW FROM ITS SUMMIT-THE DESCENT FROM MOUNT WASHBURN-THE OLD and the NEW TRAIL-THE GRAND CAÑON OF THE YELLOWSTONE-ITS BED INACCESSIBLE AT MOST POINTS THE UPPER AND LOWER FALLS OF THE YELLOWSTONE-THE LATTER AT THE HEAD OF THE GRAND CAÑON-DR. HOYT'S ELOQUENT DESCRIPTION of the Falls AND THE CAÑON THE TRAIL TO YELLOWSTONE LAKE-THE LAKE ITSELF-ITS SHAPE COMPARED TO THE HUMAN HAND-PROFESSOR RAYMOND'S CRITICISM OF THE COMPARISON-THE ELEVATION OF THE LAKE-PROFESSOR HAYDEN'S STATEMENT ONLY CORRECT IF APPLIED TO LARGE LAKES-HEIGHT OF COLORADO LAKES THE YELLOWSTONE RIVER FLOWS THROUGH THE LAKE-THE LAKE NOT ITS SOURCE-AFFLUENTS OF THE LAKE-MINERAL AND HOT SPRINGS ON ITS BANKS ITS WATERS GENERALLY VERY PURE AND SWEET-THE TROUT INFESTED WITH WORMS-BEAUTY OF THE LAKE-MARSHALL'S DESCRIPTION -STRAHORN'S POETICAL PICTURE-PROFESSOR RAYMOND'S EULOGY-REV. DR. HOYT'S PEN Portraiture of it--Moving FORWARD-THE UPPER AND LOWER GEYSER BASINS—EXPLANATIONS IN REGARD TO GEYSERS-THOSE OF ICELAND

THE ONLY OTHERS OF NOTE IN THE WORLD-CHARACTER OF THE GEYSER ERUPTION-OLD AND RECEnt Geysers—THE UPPER GEYSER BASIN-Rev. EDWIN STANLEY'S "PARADE of the Geysers "-THE GEYSERS NOT ALL IN ACTION AT ONCE-Lieutenant BARLOW ON THE FAN AND WELL Geysers— THE GROTTO-MR. NORTON'S DESCRIPTION-LIEUTENANT DOANE ON THE GRAND GEYSER-PROFESSOR RAYMOND ON THE LOWER GEYSER BASIN-THE LANGS OR EXTINCT GEYSERS-GEYSERDOM NOT PARADISE-DR. HOYT's DFSCRIPTION OF THE DESOLATION-THE GEYSERS AND HOT SPRINGS OF GIBBON'S FORK-BEAVER LAKE-THE OBSIDIAN CLIFFS-MOUNTAINS OF GLASSREVIEW OF THE WHOLE-ACCESSIBILITY OF THE PARK-ITS FUTURE ATTRACTIONS ITS QUiet and BeautIFUL VALLEYS And Glades-Distances within THE PARK.

THE Yellowstone National Park is a region about sixty-five miles long by fifty-five miles wide, situated mostly in the northwest corner of Wyoming Territory, but on its north and west sides stretching a few miles into the adjacent Territories of Montana and Idaho. It covers an area of about 3,578 square miles, or 2,298,920 acres, having an extent a little greater than that of the combined States of Rhode Island and Delaware. In this region there are assembled so many grand, sublime and picturesque natural objects, and such a variety of unique and marvellous phenomena, that when an account of some of the most remarkable of these wonders was brought before Congress in the report of the United States Geological Survey, under Professor Hayden, an act was passed by the unanimous vote of both Houses, and approved by the President, March 1, 1872, withdrawing from sale and occupancy, and setting apart as a National Park, or perpetual public pleasure ground, for the use and enjoyment of the people, the area above described, with boundaries designed to include the chief wonders of the region, and described as follows: "Commencing at the junction of Gardiner's river with the Yellowstone river, and running east to the meridian passing ten miles to the eastward of the most eastern point of Yellowstone lake; thence south along said meridian to the parallel of latitude passing ten miles south of the most southerly point of Yellowstone lake; thence west along said parallel to the meridian passing fifteen miles west of the most western point of Madison lake; thence north along said meridian to the latitude of the junction of the

BOUNDARIES fixed BY CONGRESS.

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Yellowstone and Gardiner's rivers; thence east to the place of beginning."

The region, thus bounded, stretches a few miles east of the meridian of 110°, and about as far west of the meridian of 111° west longitude from Greenwich, and a few miles north of the parallel of 45°, and not quite so far south as 44° north latitude. These boundaries show at once that this National Park is not like the parks of Colorado, which are strictly natural divisions of land, being great areas, level or slightly undulating, enclosed by a rim of lofty mountains, whereas the boundaries of the National Park are purely artificial, merely referring to certain natural objects for their location.

Situated," says Professor William I. Marshall, who has made this great wonderland a special subject of study, "along the highest part of that great culminating area of North America which has been aptly termed 'The Crown of the Continent,' and from which pour down to the Gulf of Mexico on the southeast, to the Gulf of California on the southwest, and to the open Pacific on the northwest, the mightiest rivers of both coasts of the continent, the Park embraces within its boundaries, on the west side of the main range of the Rocky Mountains, the country about some of the headwaters of the Lewis or Snake river, the great southerly fork of the Oregon or Columbia, the greatest river of the Pacific slope, which no longer

"Hears no sound

Save its own dashings,'

since the steamer's wheels now vex its waters, the hum of varied industry rises from its fertile valleys, and the roar of the railroad startles the echoes along its dales. Most of the Park, however, is on the east side of the main range, and embraces the country about the headwaters of the Madison and Gallatin rivers, which are the middle and eastern of the three streams which unite to form the Missouri river, and much of the upper valley, though not the extreme headwaters of the Yellowstone river, which is a stream as long as the Rhine or the Ohio, far surpasses them in the sublimity of its scenery, and is the greatest tributary of the upper part of the Missouri river.

"Being a volcanic region, the Park (except a little of the northeast corner of it, where silver mines exist) is valueless for mining purposes, except for sulphur, and as that exists in unlimited quantities at points nearer the main line of the Union Pacific, notably at a point forty miles southeast of Evanston, the extra freight on it will make the Park deposit economically valueless. As the lowest valleys of the Park are more than 6,000 and most of them from 7,000 to 8,000 feet above the sea, its altitude and latitude make it worthless for farming purposes, there being few nights without frosts. Though not adapted for a permanent residence of any considerable population, the Park, with its opportunities for sailing, and rowing, and fishing, and hunting, with the grandest of mountains within it and upon its borders, and the purest of air ever sweeping over it, and with the inducements to open air life and exercise offered by its unique and enchanting scenery, is preeminently fitted for a public pleasure ground, from June to October, and especially from about the first of August to the middle of October. Though a volcanic region, there is nowhere in the Park any opening from which flame, smoke, ashes or lava issues now, or, as far as known, has issued for ages past, the only manifestations of the volcanic forces now being limited to eruptions of steam and hot water; though almost everywhere in the Park, and outside its boundaries in many directions, are vast beds and streams of ancient lava, showing how terrific was the former intensity of the volcanic forces, whose declining activity now only suffices to produce steam and spout boiling water, instead, as anciently, of melting down into indistinguishable ruin the adamantine framework of the continent, and spreading it, as a foaming torrent of fiery devastation, over the surface of mountains and plains for an area of scores of thousands of square miles."

The Park is not readily accessible from Wyoming; on its eastern side the Wind River Range presents an impassable barrier of lofty walls of rock, through which none of the exploring parties have ever been able to find a practicable pass even for pack animals; on the southern side a stage road extends from Green River City to Camp Brown, a distance of 155 miles; thence a tolerable wagon road exists to the head of Wind river, a distance