Still another extravaganza, with a basis in fact, had a bearing upon the northeast corner of the Park. Jim averred that the entire region was under the curse of an old Crow chieftain. All things became lifeless, plants, animals, rivers, and even the light of sun, moon, and stars had a petrified cast. “Yes, siree, thar’s miles o’ peetrefied hills, covered with layers o’ peetrefied trees, and on ’em trees air peetrefied birds a singin’ peetrefied songs!” Sometimes for the sake of spice and variety he used the word putrified instead of peetrefied. There can be little doubt that he actually knew of a spot in the great lake where a cast hook and line would catch a cutthroat. Then a semicircular swerve would bring him slowly to shore. Upon taking the fish from the hook it would be found well-cooked and ready for eating! Jim’s Alum Creek episode tips heavily on the ludicrous side. “We was ridin’ east o’ the river along the side o’ a creek. ’Twas boggy an’ goin’ was slow. When the cañon narrowed we guide our hosses into the stream. ’Twasn’t no time till the hosses’ feet shrunk to pin points, an’, by tarnation, we went twenty miles in a jiffy. Them thar waters was so strong o’ alum as to pucker distance itself!” Is there any wonder that a classic mantle of exaggeration should invest Bridger with an enduring title of Münchausen? However, underneath Jim’s tough, frontier-beaten exterior, obvious self-esteem, and braggadocio, there was a genuine and picturesque sincerity. He was not only colorful in acting an interesting frontier role, in which the setting was fully exploited, but he was a reliable geographer as well. Captain J. W. Gunnison received such a precise account of Yellowstone from Bridger as to enable him to write the following vivid description without reference to any other source: He [Bridger] gives a picture, most romantic and enticing, of the headwaters of the Yellowstone. A lake, sixty miles long, cold and pellucid, lies embosomed among high precipitous mountains. On the west side is a sloping plain, several miles wide, with clumps of trees and groves of pine. The ground resounds with the tread of horses. Geysers spout up seventy feet high, with a terrific, hissing noise, at regular intervals. Waterfalls are sparkling, leaping and thundering down the precipices, and collect in the lake, and for fifteen miles roars through the perpendicular canyon at the outlet. In this section are the “Great Springs”—so hot that meat is readily cooked in them, and as they descend on the successive terraces, afford at length delightful baths. On the other side is an acid spring, which gushes out in a river torrent; and below is a cave, which supplies “vermillion” for the savages in abundance.[118]