Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 47.djvu/190

180 however, showed that the strange stories of Jim Bridger were not without some elements of truth.

Two-Ocean Pass was visited by Captain Jones in 1873, by Dr. F. V. Hay den in 1878, and by Mr. Arnold Hague in 1884. The observations made by these various explorers seemed to indicate that Two-Ocean Pass is a nearly level meadow, near the center of which is a marsh, which, in times of wet weather, becomes a small lake, and that "a portion of the waters from the surrounding mountains accumulates in the marshy meadows and gradually gravitates from either side into two small streams, one of which flows to the northeast, the other to the southwest" (Hayden).

From these reports it began to be suspected that trout, ascending Pacific Creek from Snake River, might, in time of high water, pass through the lake in Two-Ocean Pass and descend Atlantic Creek and the upper Yellowstone to Yellowstone Lake, and thus would the origin of the trout of that lake be explained. Dr. Jordan, who spent some time in the park in 1889, was impressed with the probable correctness of this explanation, but did not visit Two-Ocean Pass.

In 1891, while carrying on certain investigations in Montana and the Yellowstone Park, under the direction of the United States Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, Colonel Marshall McDonald, I was instructed to visit Two-Ocean Pass and determine definitely the conditions which obtain there.

On August 7th, with Billy Hofer, that prince of mountaineers, as our guide, we started out from the Mammoth Hot Springs with a pack train of ten pack horses and eight saddle horses. Our route led us through all the geyser basins of the park, and we reached Two-Ocean Pass August 17th, where we remained long enough to make a careful examination.

This pass is a high mountain meadow, about eight thousand two hundred feet above the sea, and situated just south of the park, in longitude 110º 10΄, latitude 44º 3΄. It is surrounded on all sides by rather high mountains, except where the narrow valleys of Atlantic and Pacific Creeks open out from it. Running back among the mountains to the northward are two small cañons, down which come two small streams. On the opposite side is another canon, down which comes another small stream. The extreme length of the meadow from east to west is about a mile, while the width from north to south is not much less. The larger of the streams coming in from the north is Pacific Creek, which, after winding along the western side of the meadow, turns abruptly westward, leaving the pass through a narrow gorge. Receiving numerous small affluents, Pacific Creek soon becomes a good-sized stream, which finally unites with Buffalo Creek a few miles above where the latter stream Hows into Snake River.