"From the Mud Springs the trail is due west, and crosses the mountain range which separates the Yellowstone from the Madison, both tributaries to the Missouri, descends this tributary to the West Fork of the Madison, and here is the Lower Geyser Basin. It would require a volume to describe these geysers in detail. It must suffice now for me to say that the Lower Geyser Basin presents a series of hot springs or basins of water coming up from below hot enough to scald your hand, boil a ham, eggs, or anything else, clear as crystal, with basins of every conceivable shape, from the size of a quill to actual lakes 100 yards across. In walking among and around these one feels that in a moment he may break through and be lost in a species of hell. "Six miles higher up the West Madison is the Upper Geyser Basin, the spouting geysers, the real object and aim of our visit. To describe these in detail would surpass my ability or the compass of a letter. They have been described by Lieutenants Duane, Hayden, Strong, Lord Dunraven, and many others. The maps by Major Ludlow, of the Engineers, locate several geysers accurately. We reached the Upper Geyser Basin at 12 M. one day and remained there till 4 P. M. of the next. During that time we saw the old 'Faithful' perform at intervals varying from sixty-two minutes to eighty minutes. The intervals vary, but the performance only varies with the wind and sun. The cone, or hill, is of soft, decaying lime, but immediately about the hole, which is irregular, about six feet across, the incrustation is handsome, so that one can look in safety when the geyser is at rest." Returning to Fort Ellis, they next rode to Helena, the Capital of Montana Territory, 106 miles in one day, by a relay of stages. They visited old Fort Benton, established long ago by the American Fur Company, also Fort Shaw, and then striking over the country to Fort Missoula, and then across the Bitter Root Mountains through Idaho and across Washington Territory to the Pacific coast.