Returning to the camp we had left in the morning, we found the train had
crossed the river, and we forded at the same place, visiting, however,
on our way another large cauldron of boiling mud lying nearly opposite
our camp. Soon after fording the river we discovered some evidence that
trappers had long ago visited this region. Here we found that the earth
had been thrown up two feet high, presenting an angle to the river,
quite ingeniously concealed by willows, and forming a sort of rifle-pit,
from which a hunter without disclosing his hiding place could bring down
swans, geese, ducks, pelicans, and even the furred animals that made
their homes along the river bank.

We followed the trail of the advance party along the bank of the river,
and most of the way through a dense forest of pine timber and over a
broad swampy lowland, when we came into their camp on the Yellowstone
lake two miles from where it empties into the river, and about ten miles
from our morning camp. We passed Brimstone basin on our left, and saw
jets of steam rising from the hills back of it. From all appearances the
Yellowstone can be forded at almost any point between the rapids just
above the upper fall and the lake, unless there are quicksands and
crevices which must be avoided.

Yellowstone lake, as seen from our camp to-night, seems to me to be the
most beautiful body of water in the world. In front of our camp it has a
wide sandy beach like that of the ocean, which extends for miles and as
far as the eye can reach, save that occasionally there is to be found a
sharp projection of rocks. The overlooking bench rises from the water's
edge about eight feet, forming a bank of sand or natural levee, which
serves to prevent the overflow of the land adjoining, which, when the
lake is receiving the water from the mountain streams that empty into it