THE YELLOWSTONE REGION.* As a literary production, the description before

us of the Yellow- stone Lake Region in the Rocky Mountains has an unusual number of faults. The book is a compilation from a manuscript

report of the exploration of this remote and difficult territory in 1870-71 by one of the officers engaged in it, and an official report by another officer ; the fifth annual report of the Geological Survey of the Territories, by Dr. Hayden, U.S.A. ; and certain articles on the wonders of the Yellowstone, contributed to Scribner's Monthly—an American periodical which is becoming known among us—by Ex-Governor Langford of Montana and Dr. Hayden. It could not have been an easy task to compile from these materials a readable volume, somewhat of the hand- book class, and calculated to stimulate emigration, or migration, for the first two sections would naturally be technical, and the third scientifically dry. The fourth would be more hopeful ;

scientific men can sometimes popularise their specialities for magazines. Dr. Hayden without his hammer, and Ex-Governor Langford with no immediate occasion for a revolver or a Vigilance Committee, would probably tell their respective stories impres- sively, and supply good store of picturesque material to the compiler. Judging by the use which Mr. Richardson has made of it, they did nothing of the kind. It would be inexact to say that we do not receive an impression that the Yellowstone is a wonderful region, and that the explorers accomplished a difficult and meritorious feat ; but the narrative is a bare recapitulation of the facts of the exploration and the features of the place. It is abrupt in the wrong place, and digressive when we have had enough of some particular wonder, and want to get on to another ; it is hurried, but also verbose.

We never get a firm hold of the party, and the bewildering geography of North America—which becomes more bewildering to us according as people out there get to know more about it, and take to mentioning hopelessly obscure places with a careless and unexplaining familiarity such as might suit Berlin, or Belfast, or Brixton—swamps us altogether after a short time. The only relief is to be found in tearing out the little single-leaf map of the territory, keeping it always on the opposite page, and learning off by heart these sentences from the preface:—

"The following description of the marvellous features and pheno- mena of the Yellowstone Lake Region in the Rocky Mountains begins .close to its northern border, at the frontier military post of Fort Ellis. . . . . . The entire area, hemmed in by the loftiest peaks of the Rocky Mountains, is over 6,000 feet above sea-level, and the Yellowstone * Wonders of the Yellowstone Region in the Rocky Mountains. Edited by James Richardson. London : Blackie and Son.

Lake, which occupies an area of 15 by 22 miles, has an elevation of 7,427 feet. The whole region is of Pliocene age, and bears unequivocal traces of its having been the scene of prolonged and energetic volcanic activity."

Fortified by these scraps of certainty, one may encounter the zealous confusion of the book with hopefulness, and though one never ceases to feel aggrieved throughout by the sense that so little has been made of material that might have supplied so much in the literary sense, it is possible to get enjoyment out of it, and to feed one's fancy on much that is delightful, in contem- plating the wonderful lake, set like a jewel in the snowy crown of

the great Western continent ; and its surroundings of forest and mountain, of geyser and cation. The first attempt to explore the valley was made in 1859, but though the expedition passed entirely round the Yellowstone basin it could not penetrate it, for what reason does not appear. Ten years later a second expedi-

tion was formed, but it is likely that its failure was complete, since no report of its proceedings was published ; and the credit of revealing the Yellowstone Region to the world rests with the expedition of 1870, organised by some of the officials and leading citizens of Montana. The explorers, led by the Surveyor- General of the territory, and accompanied by a small escort of United States' cavalry, visited "the callous of the Yellowstone, [here cling to the map!] and the shores of Yellowstone Lake ; then crossing the mountains to the head-waters of the Madison, they visited the geyser region of Firehole River, and ascended that stream to its junction with the Madison, along whose valley they returned to civilisation, confident, as their historian wrote, that they had seen the greatest wonders on the continent, and con- vinced that there was not on the globe another region where, within the same limits, nature had crowded so much of grandeur and majesty, with so much of novelty and wonder."

This is tall-talking, but not much taller than is justified by the facts, as we make them out in the somewhat disorderly narrative. Of the White mountains, Dr. Hayden says quaintly :—" Several of my party who had visited Europe regarded the range as in no way inferior to any in that far-famed country,"—by which testi- mony, considering that some of the snowy peaks are 11,000 feet above the sea, we are not surprised. The great interest of the journey begins at the Devil's Slide, a wonderful mass of parallel ridges, formed of alternate beds of sandstone, limestone, and quartzites, elevated to a nearly vertical position by those internal forces which acted in ages past to lift the mountain ranges to their present heights. All the nomenclature in this region is of the infernal order, in which the old trappers and mountaineers excelled ; and some of the most beautiful natural objects in the world are known as "Fire - hole Prairie," "The Devil's Den," and "Hell's Roaring River." One smiles at the prosaic and pedantic simplicity which has sought to replace them by those bestowed by the explorers,—Wisdom River, Philanthropy River, Philosophy Creek, and so on. The mouth of Gardiner's River, a mountain torrent which enters the great lake at the end of the Third Cation, is twelve miles from the Devil's Slide, and the description of the intervening country reads like a modified version of Sindbad's Valley. "Scattered over the hills and through the valleys are numerous beautiful specimens of chalcedony and chips of obsidian. Many of the chalcedonies are geodes, in which are crystals of quartz ; others contain opal in the centre, and agate on the exterior ; and still others have on the outside crystals of calcite." These, no doubt, gave rise to the travellers' tales of thickets of petrified sage-brush, whose stony branches bore emeralds, rubies, sapphires, diamonds,

and other gems, as large as walnuts. "I tell you, Sir," said a man who had been there to Colonel Reynolds, the chief of the

expedition, "it is true, for I gathered a quart myself and sent them down the country." Four miles up the valley of G-ardiner's River the strangest natural feature of the Yellowstone Region- " the crowning wonder," as the editor calls it—is found. It con- sists of the hot-springs on the mountain side, which cover an area of a square mile :—

"Small streams flow down the sides of the snowy mountains in channels lined with oxide of iron of the most delicate tints of red. Others show exquisite shades of yellow, from a deep, bright sulphur to a dainty cream-colour. Others are stained with shades of green ; all these colours as brilliant as the brightest aniline dyes. The water after rising from the spring basin flows down the sides of the declivity, step by step, from one reservoir to another, at each one of them losing a portion of its heat, until it becomes as cool as spring water. These natural basins vary in size, but many of them are about four by six feet in diameter, and one to four feet in depth. Their margins are beauti- fully scalloped, and adorned with a natural bead-work of exquisite

beauty The springs are filled with minute vegetable forms, and in the little streams that flow from the boiling springs are great quantities of a fibrous, silky substance, which vibrates at the slightest movement of the water, and has the appearance of the finest quality of cashmere wool. When the waters are still these silken masses become incrusted with lime, the delicate vegetable threads disappear, and a fibrous, spongy mass remains, like snow-white coral."

The "wonders," properly so called, begin with the hot-springs,

and they really are wonderful ; for instance, the columns of steam rising from dense forests, to the height of several hundred feet,

and puffing away with a roaring sound, audible for a long dis- tance, despite the masses of trees; and the immense gulf of the Grand Carlon, which cuts away the bases of two mountains in forcing a passage through the range. Here is a short extract from Lieutenant Doane's description ; the best in the book :—

"Its yellow walls divide the landscape nearly in a straight line. The ragged edges of the chasm are from two hundred to five hundred yards apart, its depths so profound that the river bed is nowhere visible. No sound reaches the ear from the bottom of the abyss; the sun's rays are reflected on tho further wall, and then lost in the darkness below. The mind struggles and then falls back upon itself, despairing in the efforts to grasp by a single thought the idea of its immensity. Beyond, a gentle declivity, sloping from the summit of the broken range, extends to the limits of vision, a wilderness of unbroken pine forest."

Everything in the Yellowstone Region is on an immense scale, and some things are terrifying, but one gets used to them speedily. The awful Caiion prepares the mind for the contemplation of the sublime and tremendous Falls ; the Geysers for the Mud Volcano, the Crystal Cascade, and "Hell-broth Spring." All the accounts agree in describing the effect of the Grand Cafion, "which has no parallel in the world," as terrible, inspiring a harrowing sense of danger, and of the oppression of absolute silence. The mind is forced to sympathise with its deep gloom, and turns with delight to the life and motion of the cascades. The lake is the crowning beauty of the scene, and the grand reward of the traveller's toil. There is, probably, no more beautiful piece of water in the world than that which lies at its vast elevation, amid the peaks of the Rocky Mountains, with pine-crowned pro- montories stretching into it from the base of the hills, with emerald islets upon its bosom, and a wide rim of sparkling sand. Some-

times the wind, coming through the gorges, lashes it into fury, sometimes it is still and unruffled. It contains no fish except trout, but those in myriads, and water-fowl swarm upon its surface. Immense fleets of pelican come sailing down with the stately swans, and at nightfall the low, flat islets are white with them. The mountain meadows and the forests around the lake—on whose breast the expedition launched the first boat its waters ever bore in 1870—are thronged with undisturbed herds of noble forest creatures,—deer, elk, mountain sheep, buffalo, and grizzly. It is marvellously beautiful, grand, and peaceful, and its sunny solitude is inexpressibly delightful and overpowering. The eastern rim of the Yellowstone Basin is one of the grandest volcanic ranges in the world ; it is called the Wind Range ; the general level of its Summits is ten thousand feet above the sea, while many of its peaks rise to eleven thousand. Between the fair expanse of the

great lake and this gigantic barrier lies Brimstone Basin, the last " wonder " we can quote :—

"For several miles the ground is impregnated with sulphur, and the air is tainted with sulphurous exhalations; streams of warm sulphur- water course the hill-sides and unite to form a rivulet whose channel is coated with a creamy-white mixture of silica and sulphur. Old pine- logs, once lofty trees, lie prostrate in every direction over the basin, whiuh covers an area some three miles in extent. Similar brimstone basins are numerous around the lake, on the lower slopes of the mountains, and in level districts. The latter are always wet, and generally impassable, the thin crust covering an abundance of scalding mud, especially dangerous to horses."

The great volcanic range has never been explored. Every attempt to violate its fastnesses has failed. The Indians call it "the crest of the world," and the Blackfeet hold that he who shall stand upon its summit shall see with his waking, bodily eyes the "happy hunting grounds" of the Red Man, where the brave finds his horse and his dog once more, his weapons and his buffalo-robe, but where squaws and pale-faces trouble him not.