Trumball Journal Index

    The following day the party struck across the country to the south, cutting off a large bend in the river, and then passed to the right of a high mountain, which some of the party ascended.  It was found to be the highest peak in that section, a barometrical observation showing it to be 10,700 feet high.  In honor of General Washburn, whom we elected Captain of the expedition, we named it "Mount Washburn."
    About four o'clock, we camped by a small, clear, cold brook, and, just below us, entering a thick, gloomy forest, which continued to the Yellowstone, about three miles distant.  In exploring the creek toward the river, when about a mile from camp, we came suddenly to a small opening on the steep hill-side, where we found a number of hot springs.  There were four quite prominent, besides a number of smaller ones.  I can not describe them better than by quoting from a description given by Mr. Hedges to a local paper.  He spent some time in giving them a thorough examination:
    "The westernmost spring had an oval-shaped basin, twenty by forty feet in diameter.  Its greenish-yellow water was hot, and bubbles of steam or gas were constantly rising from various parts of its surface.  This spring, with two others, was situated in about an easy and west line, and at the upper side of the basin, which opened south, toward the creek.  The central one of these three was the largest of all, and was in constant, violent agitation, like a seething caldron over a fiery furnace.  The water was often thrown higher than our heads, and fearful volumes of stifling, sulphureous vapors were constantly escaping.  The water was of a dark-lead color, and intensely hot.  As near as I now recollect, the basin of this spring was about thirty feet in diameter.  There was very little water flowing away from it, and very little deposit from its overflowings was visible.  It had no such mound as many that we saw subsequently, nor was its margin of such solid material.  The easternmost and uppermost spring was not as large in its crater as its near neighbors, but was more infernal to look at, and suggested the name that we attached to the springs. . . . .  The substance was not as thick as much, but rather beyond the consistency of soup, and was in constant, noisy ebullition, emitting fumes of villainous smell.  The margin was not safe for close approach, but I ventured near enough to thrust a pine sapling into the substance of this infernal kettle, and on pulling it our found it covered about one-fourth of an inch thick with a lead-colored, sulphury slime.  Nothing flows away in liquid form from this spring.  It seems to be boiling down, and will doubtless become as thick as pudding, like so many that we afterward saw. . . .  So secluded is this cluster of springs, that it would be impossible to suppose it to have been seen before by any White Man; and it appeared to us the merest chance that directed our steps hither.  How many similar basins are hidden away among the vast forests that cover this region we can best conceive, who have seen scores of them without turning much from our direct course."
    We reached the falls of the Yellowstone on the morning of August 30th.  These falls, two in number, are less than half a mile apart.  From the lake to the upper falls, a distance of about twenty miles, the river flows, with the exception of a short series of rapids having a moderate current, through an open, undulating country, gently sloping toward the stream.  Here and there are small groves, and the timber is quite thick a mile away from the river.  A quarter of a mile above the upper falls the river breaks into rapids, and foams in eddies about huge, granite bowlders, some of which have trees and shrubs growing upon them.  Above the rapids the river is about 150 yards wide, but, as it approaches the falls, high, rocky bluffs crowd in on both sides, forcing the water into a narrow gorge, which, at the brink of the falls, is about thirty yards wide.  The most convenient and desirable place from which to view the falls is from a ledge, easily reached, which juts into the river a considerable distance, just below the falls, and a few feet lower than their brink.  It is so close that occasional drops dampen one's face.  The height of the upper falls is 115 feet.  The ledge is irregular, the water being much deeper on the west side than on the east.  Great rocks project in the face of the fall, tearing and churning the waters into foam, with here and there a little strip of green, which contrasts beautifully with the surrounding silvery whiteness of the water.

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Yellowstone Net is Produced by Bruce Gourley, Russ Finley,  & Tim Gourley.
Copyright 1997-2005 by Bruce Gourley.