The Montana post. [volume] (Virginia City, Montana Territory [i.e. Mont.]) 1864-1869, 1867-06-08
A SUMMER TOUR.

1t is the pride of Montana that with its
rich resources of minerals and agriculture
it abounds in scenery of delightful pic
turesqueness, and unexceIIed grandeur.
The great main ranges and spurs of the
Rocky Mountains, where but a few miles
apart are the head springs of two rivers
that flow to different oceans, ,encircling the
globe, have, nestled in their recesses, and
following out to the plains, valleys of
Arcadian beauty, luxurant with herbage
and pleasing to the eye as the wales of
Cashmere. But if the evidence of those
aUaBt gdrdes, the hunter and prospector
is admissible, and it is corroberative from
] a score of different persons, going thither
at different seasons, from different places,
! by different routes, and without subse-
Quent collusion, there exists on the ex-
treme southern borders of the Territory
and extending southwark, a region of
country surprising, in natural curiosities
any other on the continent, and offering
most tempting field for scientific ex-
ploration, as well as the most enticing
for tourists, artists, sensation hunters
and miners, Of any region lying within
the confines of the Republic. A terra
inc09aitd, whose description remains to
be written, abounding in the wonderful,
the grand and the golden. The stories
related of it seem fabulous, but the testi
mony is cumulative and worthy of
credence. Where the West Fork of the
Madison springs, and thence southeast
erly to the Yellowstone Lake lies this
wonderful region. In one place is de-
scribed huge rocky precipices, with
petri6ed forests buried in them, with
the trunks and limbs distinctly defined,
standing as they grew. Another sec
tion is an active volcanic region, covered
with lava, and the assures emitting heat
and smoke, the bed oflava so hot that il
is impossible to cross it. An immense
geyser throws huge column of water
to height of 80 feet, not steadily, but
in successive breathings as it were,
while innumerable smaller fountains all
around, squirt up their tiny jets. This
water. seething hot, collects, and dashing
over lofty precipice, forms the head
waters of the Madison. For many miles
below. the water retains this heat. In
another place. through a narrow canyon
mile or two in length, where the sun
scarcely ever shines, is a road straight as
an arrow, cut through forrest of dense
timber, with the stumps, chips and logs
remaining to mark the probable route of
the Pathfinder. The water in various
places, is covered with a substance
which is described as resembling tar,
suggestion descriptive to oil hunters.
There are immense gravel bars, said to
prospect richly in gold, and the state
ment that good prospects can be found
high mp the mountain sides, sounds not
improbable 20 one who has visited the
Yellowstone lower down, and found
wash boulders and gravel on the noun
tain tops, and marked where the waters
had formerly been confined in lakes, and
successfully bursted through one range
after another until il found an Quite.
below the range beyond .Bozeman City.
These things are but vague outline of
the graphic and elaborately drawn word
pictures we have heard narrated of the
country. A party is now forming,
purposing in a few weeks to visit this
region, but few days ride from Virginia,