Rocky Mountains, between the forty-third and forty-fifth degrees of latitude and logth and i i 1th degrees of longitude, that is, between the sources of the Madison and Yellowstone. It reaches more than a hundred miles. Bituminous, sulphurous and boiling springs are very numerous in
it. The hot springs contain a large quantity of calcareous matter, and form hills more or less elevated, which resemble in their nature, perhaps, if not in their extent, the famous springs of Pambuk Kalessi, in Asia Minor, so well described by Chandler.' The earth is thrown up very high, and the influence of the elements causes it to take the most varied and the most fantastic shapes. Gas, vapor and smoke are continually escaping by a thousand openings, from the base to the summit of the volcanic pile; the noise at times resembles the steam let off by a boat. Strong subterranean explosions occur, like those in " Colter's Hell." The hunters and the Indians speak of it with a superstitious fear, and consider it the abode of evil spirits, that is to say, a kind of hell. Indians seldom approach it without offering some sacrifice, or at least without presenting the calumet of peace to the turbulent spirits, that they may be propitious. They declare that the subterranean noises proceed from the forging of warlike weapons: each eruption of earth is, in their eyes, the result of a combat between the infernal spirits, and becomes the monument of a new victory or calamity.
Near Gardiner river, a tributary of the Yellowstone, and in the vicinity of the region I have just been describing, there is a mountain of sulphur. I have this report from Captain Bridger,' who is familiar with every one of these mountains, having passed thirty years of his life near them.'
s Richard Chandler, English archaeologist, 1738-18io.
e James Bridger, 1804-1881, "the ablest hunter, mountaineer and guide of the West," went to the Indian country in 1822, founded Fort Bridger in 1843; his vast special knowledge made him invaluable in later years to the Government and in railroad surveys. American Fur Trade of the Far West.
7 This is one of the most complete and interesting early references