So well versed was he in woodcraft that he could travel through pathless forests and over rugged mountains as unerringly as by well-beaten trails. A love for wild nature and adventure had become his ruling passion. After hunting and trapping for several years he returned to St. Louis. Here he told his friends the marvels that he had seen and his adventures with Indians and wild beasts; but his hearers being doubting Thomases, listened with incredulity to his astonishing stories. He related his experiences and what he had seen to an editor of a St. Louis paper, who, after listening patiently to the narrative, informed Coulter that his wonderful adventures, glass mountain, and boiling springs among the snows were falsehoods and could find no place for publication. Coulter gave interviews to many other persons, and stuck so persistently to his statements that the region which he had so minutely described was derisively dubbed "Coulter's Hell." Coulter's experiences certainly were marvellous. On one occasion, when he and a companion were trapping along the Madison Fork of the Missouri River, they were surprised by a company of Blackfeet Indians who killed his friend but spared his life for the time being. After the Indians had consulted for some time in regard to what should be done with Coulter, the chief asked him if he could run fast. Coulter replied that he could not. He was in reality the fleetest runner among the western hunters, but he told the Indians that he could not run fast, since he concluded that there was a chance of saving his life by running should he be given the opportunity. [Illustration: The Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming Looking down canyon from Grand Point] He was stripped naked and taken several miles away to give the Indians some sport before killing him. Then the chief commanded his followers to remain back while he led the captive some three hundred yards in front of them. At a given signal he told Coulter to save himself if he could. At once the war whoop resounded and six hundred demons were on the track of the fugitive. Coulter strained every nerve to outdistance his murderous pursuers. His great exertions caused the blood to spirt from his nostrils and smear the front of his body. After running a while he heard footsteps, and turning saw an Indian with a spear but a few yards behind him. Being exhausted, and fearing that at any moment the spear might be hurled at him, he concluded to surprise the Indian. Stopping suddenly he wheeled about and presented his bloody body and outstretched arms to the Indian. The red man, greatly astonished, in attempting to stop quickly stumbled and fell, breaking his spear. Before the prostrate runner could recover himself Coulter seized the head of the shaft and quickly pinioned his foe to the ground.