the spot where the canoes had been deposited.  We set out at ten o’clock and pursued a course S. 56’0 E. across the valley, which we found to be watered by four large creeks, with extensive low and miry bottoms; and then reached (and crossed) Wisdom River, along the northeast side of which we continued, till at the distance of sixteen miles we came to its three branches.  Near that place we stopped for dinner at a hot spring situated in the open plain.  The bed of the spring is about fifteen yards in circumference, and composed of loose, hard, gritty stones, through which the water boils in great quantities.  It is slightly impregnated with sulphur, and so hot that a piece of meat about the size of three fingers was completely done in twenty-five minutes.”

Next day, July 8, the party reached the forks of the Jefferson River, where they had cached their goods in August, 1805; they had now travelled one hundred and sixty-four miles from Traveller’s-rest Creek to that point.  The men were out of tobacco, and as there was some among the goods deposited in the cache they made haste to open the cache.  They found everything safe, although some of the articles were damp, and a hole had been made in the bottom of one of the canoes.  Here they were overtaken by Sergeant Ordway and his party with the nine horses that had escaped during the night of the seventh.

That night the weather was so cold that water froze in a basin to a thickness of three-quarters of an inch, and the grass around the camp was stiff with frost, although the month of July was nearly a week old.  The boats taken from the cache were now loaded, and the explorers were divided into two bands, one to descend the river by boat and the other to take the same general route on horseback, the objective point being the Yellowstone.  The story is taken tip here by the journal in these lines:—­

“After breakfast (July 10) the two parties set out, those on shore skirting the eastern side of Jefferson River, through Service (-berry) Valley and over Rattlesnake Mountain, into a beautiful and extensive country, known among the Indians by the name of Hahnahappapchah, or Beaverhead Valley, from the number of those animals to be found in it, and also from the point of land resembling the head of a beaver.  It (the valley) extends from Rattlesnake Mountain as low as Frazier’s Creek, and is about fifty miles in length in direct line; while its width varies from ten to fifteen miles, being watered in its whole course by Jefferson River and six different creeks.  The valley is open and fertile; besides the innumerable quantities of beaver and otter with which its creeks are supplied, the bushes of the low grounds are a favorite resort for deer; while on the higher parts of the valley are seen scattered groups of antelopes, and still further, on the steep sides of the mountains, are observed many bighorns, which take refuge there from the wolves and bears.  At the distance of fifteen miles the