The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-03-09
THE YELLOWSTONE REGION.

SCENERY ALONG THE YELLOWSTONE RIVER
THE CITMATE--THE FERTILITY or THE coUN-
TRY, ETC. ETC.
We are permitted to make the following
extracts from the private letters Of q young
Philadelphan who visited the Territory of
Montana in 1866, and, III company with
party of some two hundred miners, descended
the Yellowstone river with fleet of Macki-
nav boats, few miles from it's source (Yel-
lowstone Lake) to its mouth, where it emp
ties into the Missouri river near Fort Union,
the entire distance with its windings being
roughly estimated at one thousand miles.
The scenery along the Yellowstone country
is grand and beautiful. Nature, here, is in
all its primeval glory and magnifcence, just
as the hand of the Almighty created it. All
the readings of wild life in the West that
have spent many pleasant hours home With,
were here to the fullest extent realized.
After leaving Boseman City Fifteen houses,
these mountain cities are not very large, you
must know, the second day we entered the
Great Canon of the Yellowstone, and beheld
one of Natures masterpieces. How Bier
stadt, the great artist, would have loved to
gaze upon this magnificent scene, which my
poor brain and pen can do so little towards
describing its sublimities
On the right rose solid wall of mountain
nine hundred feet in height, while to theleft,
and across the beautiful valley some few hun
dred feet wide, where the tall wild grass was
growing most luxuriantly six and seven feet
high, and grove after grove of fine, large
old cottonwoodstrees were scattered here aud
there in clumps-proj jected immense, heavy,
detached boulders of yellow rock, that
seemed waiting to fall, like an avalanche,
almost at any moment, into the little valley
below. Along the base of this solid wall of
mountain gently glided the Yellowstone,
whose waters here, from the melted SHOWS of
tba
pure, and clear as crystal itself, and in fancy
/ imagined 1 had discovered the waters of
life aud beauty which the famous Ponce de
Leon once sought. Afar oH in the distance,
and forming the background of this grand
picture, rose three distinct spurs of the Wind
River Mountains, in all their solemn and
awful grandeur, while the deep blue mist
that partially obscured them seemed to me
as though the hand of the Omnipotent had
drawn himself the veil, to shut out from
mortal view the secrets held within their
rocky bosoms, of days long, long ago-ay,
centuries-when the mighty heavngs aud
convulsions of Nature formed them.
You may think, my dear friend, that I am
poetical in this description. 1 can only say
in reply, that any one who could gaze stolidly
and indifferently on scenery like what be-
held in this very ''fastness of Nature" must
indeed be stranger to those finer and better
sensibilties that ennoble every human being
whom God has created.
The finest trout fishing in the world can
there be found All that is necessary to get
nice mess for your breakfast is to take a short
stroll along the little valley of this grand
canon, and in a very short time you can catch
enough grasshoppers among the wild grasses
to last you all day for bait. Then cutting a
young willow tree for your fishing pole you
tie the end of your line to it; placing big fat
grasshoppeer on your hook, you quietly step
back little ways from the edge of the bank,
and hiding your shadow among some of the
willow bushes, throw your line into the clear
pool below. How it makes the blood tingle
through every vein in your body, if you are
an enthusiastic sportsman, to receive the gall
vanic jerk of fine, big two o-pound trout, as
he darts with lightning speed away with your
bait. Then the exquisite pleasure of captur-
ing the prize, playing with it in the water, and
by sudden, dexterous jerk, swing him in
triumph out of the stream upon the soft grass
beside you. How beautifully mottled and
speckled are these mountain trout that come
from the clear waters of the Yeliowstone [
have caught trout in this canon that weighed
near three pounds. The glory and exquisite
beauty and grandeur of this Yellowstone ca
non is something that, once seen, can never
be forgotten. When L first saw it from an
opening gorge in the mountain, whose tops
were covered with everlasting snow, and lit
up by bright September sun, the scene
made SO powerful an impression upon me-
that stood for long while looking eagerly
ON, with feelings of deep and profound emo
ton. 1t was sight to be remembered for a
lifetime.
The incidents witnessed in this adventurous
trip of descending the Yellowstone river in
Mackinaw boats were so numerous that had
the time, would fill longer letter than pro-
badly you wish to read in one day, with many
stirring details.
Our party consisting of near two hundred
men, mostly miners from Virginia and Ban
mock cities, have the credit of being the
second expedition that ever came down this
river, which is roughly estimated at one thou
sand miles. Not vestige of civilization did
we encounter along its entire course, with the
exception of one or two solitary huts near an
emigrant trail, which had been hastily put up
by the "Tenderfeet" in crossing their wagons
over some of the rough mountain streams
that empty into the river. 1 have crossed
myself nearly all the tributaries that flow into
the Yellowstone while on the plains last sum-
mer, and many time we were compelled to
jump in these swollen streams and swim
across with our mules and ponies which
was often attended with great danger to our
lives.
should have mentioned before this, that in
passing Buffalo rapids on this river we saw
an immense encampment of the Grow In
dians. Their wicky-ups or tepees were scat
tered along the rocky shore for a long WAYS
and we estimated there must have been fully
five thousand Indians. They are considered
friendly to whitesin Montana Their salutations
of Glow how !" which they shouted ont to us
from the shore, and some even rode their
ponies into the river up to the saddle-bows,
l. A.-I