creek, and within two miles of the Yellowstone.  On the right of the trail, two miles farther on, we found a small hot sulphur spring, the water of which was at a temperature a little below the boiling point, which at this elevation is about 195 degrees.  Ascending a high ridge we had a commanding view of a basaltic formation of palisades, about thirty feet in height, on the opposite bank of the Yellowstone, overlooking a stratum of cement and gravel nearly two hundred feet thick, beneath which is another formation of the basaltic rock, and beneath this another body of cement and gravel.  We named this formation “Column Rock.”  The upper formation, from which the rock takes its name, consists of basaltic columns about thirty feet high, closely touching each other, the columns being from three to five feet in diameter.  A little farther on we descended the sides of the canon, through which runs a large creek.  We crossed this creek and camped on the south side.  Our camp is about four hundred feet in elevation above the Yellowstone, which is not more than two miles distant.  The creek is full of granite boulders, varying in size from six inches to ten feet in diameter.

General Washburn was on guard last night, and to-night he seems somewhat fatigued.  Mr. Hedges has improvised a writing stool from a sack of flour, and I have appropriated a sack of beans for a like use; and, as we have been writing, there has been a lively game of cards played near my left side, which Hedges, who has just closed his diary, says is a game of poker.  I doubt if Deacon Hedges is sufficiently posted in the game to know to a certainty that poker is the game which is being played; but, putting what Hedges tells me with what I see and hear, I find that these infatuated players have put a valuation of five (5) cents per bean, on beans that did not cost more than $1 quart in Helena, and Jake Smith exhibits a marvelous lack of veneration for his kinswoman, by referring to each bean, as he places it before him upon the table, as his “aunt,” or, more flippantly, his “auntie.”  Walter Trumbull has been styled the “Banker,” and he says that at the commencement of the game he sold forty of these beans to each of the players, himself included (200 in all), at five (5) cents each, and that he has already redeemed the entire 200 at that rate; and now Jake Smith has a half-pint cup nearly full of beans, and is demanding of Trumbull that he redeem them also; that is, pay five (5) cents per bean for the contents of the cup.  Trumbull objects.  Jake persists.  Reflecting upon their disagreement I recall that about an hour ago Jake, with an apologetic “Excuse me!” disturbed me while I was writing and untied the bean sack on which I am now sitting, and took from it a double handful of beans.

It seems to me that a game of cards which admits of such latitude as this, with a practically unlimited draft upon outside resources, is hardly fair to all parties, and especially to “The Banker.”