The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-01-11
ments carried by the prospectors, is six

ments carried by the prospectors, IS six thousand feet.
 Tt is evident" said Mir. Sawyer, that the whole valley was once the bottom of a great lake. The surface consists of a black, loamy soil, four or five feet thick, and capable of raising any kind of vegetation, except corn, The country is thickly wooded in many places. Many of the trees are five feet in diameter and extend upward one hundred feet or more without single branch. The Snake river is as clear as crystal. At the narroWest point, where we are building bridge, the river is three hundred feet wide and sixteen feet deep in the middle. The nearest market for any products the settler may raise is found in the National Park, which is visited by thousands of tourists every summer. Game? 1 have no doubt that the valley is the finest hunting country on the conti- nent.
 "It is estimated that twenty thou sand elk wintered in the valley last winter. Among the large game may be named elk, moose, caribou, bear, moun-  there are vast flocks of swans in sum mer wild geese, ducks, sage hens' | pheasants. The streams and lakes are teeming with trout, sturgeon, grayling'
 Ehitefsh and many other kinds. In one hour a fisherman can catch more fish than he can carry, There is an 1s- land nine miles long in the lake, when | is a paradise for birds and feather game, as the foxes cannot get to the ls- land and destroy the young
 In addition to this tempting array for the hunter, MT. Sawyer says the country abounds in beaver, silver foX' wolverines, mink and marten.
 | Tn his explorations of the remarKaple valley MT. Sawyer met several of the pioneer settlers, whose experience pre- sents a peculiar phase of western life. The hermit Todd was once. a lawyer Tn Iowa, but he became disgusted with the tricks of civilized life and struck out across the plains thirty-five years ago to find quiet spot in the mountains He built hut on the bank of the snake river, away over on the. western slope and there he lives and thrlyes to-day. His habitation stands at the mouth ol Horse Creek, and the trayeler IS warned of approaching the abode or man by the neighing of horse and the | lowing of cattle. The hermit is nos pitable man, and he entertains visitors in good style, his wrinkled face beam I Ing with satisfaction as he shows the traveller his hundred head of cattle a | herd of forty or fifty horses, and, apoVel all and nearest in his affections his herd of tame elk. Two large male elk have been tanned as roadsters by MT. Todd. When he wants to go to the Post-Office, a crossroads settlement of six houses thirty miles away, he hitch es up his span of elk, mounts a buck board, and scurries off at the rate or ten miles an hour. MT. Sawyer says he. made the journey to the Post-0ffice by the side of Todd, and he will avow the rate of speed was at least fifteen miles an hour.
 "On the Buffalo fork of the Snake riv- | er," said MT. Sawyer, Hives anotheri hermit named Cherry. His log hut Is! one hundred and fifty miles distant, from that of his neighbor, MT. Todd, l but they manage to meet once in while. Cherry has comfortable cab 
 in, with a great open fireplace, and a. cooking stove for use in summer. He has cattle and horses, and is now enter taining his brother, who was maimed l for life last spring in a fight with a. bear. The brother is a tenderfoot and did not notice the bear until it dumped on him from behind fallen tree. The man was badly ehewed up, but, suc-i | n { A Tr ,,,,uA he was dyiug, the hunter senaWled with a lead pencil in a little book he carried ln his pocket: I met a bear, and we had fight. I think he has finished me-" { ] MT. Sawyer says the man fainted af-, ter writing in the book, and was found; nearly dead several hours later by his brother.