CHAPTER VIII
ACROSS THE CONTINENTAL DIVIDE
The next morning they made an early start, and following up theFirehole, turned up a branch coming in from the east, only ashort distance beyond Old Faithful. They purposed to go over toShoshone Lake, and camp there, and to do this they must pass overthe Continental Divide, for the Firehole finds its way through theMadison River, and the Missouri, to the Atlantic Ocean, while thewaters of the Shoshone Lake fall into Snake River, then into theColumbia, and so at last reach the Pacific.
The way was pleasant, through park-like openings and green timber,and the distance not great. There was no trail, but they followedup a narrow grassy valley, whose slopes on either side were clothedwith pines.
At last, when Hugh thought they must be near the Divide, theyfound down timber, and began to wind about among the logs. Littleby little, however, matters grew worse, and presently a stick wasencountered over which old Baldy could not step, but on which hecaught his foot and almost fell. Here all hands dismounted, andgetting an ax out of a pack, Hugh and the boys went ahead, and bylifting some of the larger sticks, and breaking smaller ones, anda little chopping, a way was soon made by which the horses couldpass along.
Beyond this timber was an open and almost level country, which Hughdeclared was the Divide, and passing along a little further, theybegan to go down a gentle hill. Here there were park-like meadowsand low wooded hills on either side. There were a few littlegullies, but no water; and in the dry stream-beds and water-holeswere many tracks of elk, all made in the spring when the ground wassoft. From the summit of this Divide, when snows are melting inthe early summer, little trickles of water pour down the oppositesides of the mountains, some to the north, to find their way intothe Firehole; others south toward Snake River. Hugh followed thegeneral direction of one of these water-courses, which constantlygrew larger, and presently turned into one still wider, whose sandybottom was dotted with great blocks of black lava. Hugh pointed outthese to the boys, and said to them, "That's the stuff that in oldtimes many of the Indians used to make their arrow points from. Itmust have been a great article of trade, for away up north of theboundary line I have seen little piles of chips of that black glasslying on the prairie, where men have been making arrow-heads, and Iknow that there wasn't any of the rock within 400 miles."
All along the valley of this dry stream was a beautiful park ofgently rolling country, with timbered knolls and open grassyintervales. Some of the trees were very large--two or three feet indiameter.
It was early in the afternoon when they reached Shoshone Lake,and riding along its smooth, firm beach, camped in a little pointof spruces. The lake was large, and looked as if it should have afish in it. Jack got out his rod and put it together, and standingit against a tree, went back into the open meadow where the horseswere feeding, to catch grasshoppers. He caught half a dozen, andthen, returning, fished faithfully for quite a long distance alongthe shore, but without success. Neither could he see anywhere thatfish were rising, and he wondered whether it could be possible thatthis beautiful lake, which seemed an ideal home for trout, shouldhave none in it. Joe, on the other hand, as soon as camp had beenmade, had taken his rifle and started out on foot, working alongthe edge of the lake and looking for game. He found many old elktracks and a very few made by deer, but went quite a long distancewithout seeing anything. Then, turning away from the shore of thelake, and taking the hillside at some distance from it, he began towork back to the camp. Here there were more deer tracks, but nonethat seemed worth while for him to follow, and he began to feeldiscouraged. When he had come almost opposite the camp he crosseda wide dry water-course, going now rather carelessly, though stillmaking no noise, yet not trying to keep out of sight. As he climbedthe gentle slope, after crossing the little valley, and had almostreached the top, he stopped, and turned about and looked backward,and there to his astonishment saw, projecting above a patch of lowwillows and weeds, the heads of two fawns. They were staring at himmost innocently, but the camp needed meat, and bringing his rifleto his shoulder he fired at the neck of one of them, and the littledeer disappeared, while the other turned about and raced awaythrough the brush.
Going to the place Joe found the fawn quite a small one, though ithad already lost its spotted coat. He dressed it, and then throwingit on his shoulders walked quickly to the camp. As he came in frontof the lodge, Hugh said to him, "Hello, Joe, what have you gotthere, a jack rabbit?"
"Well," said Joe, "it is not much bigger, but it's the only thingI have seen except another of the same size, and that I could notshoot at."
That night as the sun went down the wind began to blow a fresh drywholesome breeze from the west. The wind raised quite a sea on thelake, and big waves tumbled up on the beach one after another,so fast that it was not an easy matter to get a bucket of waterwithout at the same time getting a wet foot. Jack and Joe walkedalong the beach a little way.
"Do you know, Joe," said Jack, "this looks to me just like theseashore; the wind blows in the same way, and the waves have thesame white-caps, and the surf roars as it pounds on the beach; andthere is the moon on the water. Why it seems to me just like somenights I have walked on the beach, back east on the Long Islandshore."
"Well," said Joe, "it's not like anything I ever saw before. Up inour country we don't have sand beaches like this, though we do havethe lake, and the waves and the wind."
The animals were packed early next day, and they followed theshores of the lake southward. In some places they could see whereelk had passed along recently, and there were tracks of bulls andcows and calves. In some places, too, along the beach the pines,which were small yet looked old, were all bent toward the eastward,and had no branches on the western side. Joe pointed these treesout to Hugh and said, "Why is it Hugh that these trees seem allbent one way, and have no branches on the other side; is it thewind?"
"Yes," said Hugh, "the wind. You'll see that in lots of places,especially on mountain tops, and along big waters like this, wherethe wind blows mostly from the west and northwest, and gets a widesweep."
The wind was still blowing hard, and the lake was in a turmoil. Theair was cold, and all hands wore their coats as they rode along.
A day's journey took them by Shoshone Lake and Lewis Lake, andthey camped below it on Lewis Fork. For much of the distance thetrail passed through an attractive open country, full of streamsand springs, and dotted with clumps of thick willow brush; while onthe higher lands were the ever-present pines. To the left was thelofty ridge of the Red Mountain Range, down which half a hundredbeautiful cascades hurried toward the river. To the right was thestream, and beyond the steep sides of the Pitchstone Plateau, socalled from the black glossy fragments of the lava rock, of whichthe soil is largely made up. It was evident that this would bea hard trail in the early spring, for it was low and wet, andanimals would have trouble in passing over it at any except thedry season.
A few miles below the camp they began to look for a ford. Thestream looked deep and difficult, yet it was necessary for them tocross it, for on the east side the mountains came down close to theriver in a steep and impassable jumble of slide rock. Just abovethem they could see a great water-fall, not far below the lake.It was now getting toward night, and Hugh was a little uncertainwhether to cross this stream, or to camp on this side. However, hedetermined to cross, and stopping, had the boys catch up the packanimals, while he rode into the stream to prospect for a ford. Hekept diagonally down the river, going very slowly, and feeling forthe shoalest places, but at last, reached the opposite bank andclimbed out. Then, turning about, he recrossed, and telling theboys to keep the horses close to him, he led them into the stream.The ford was rather deep, the water coming more than half way upthe horses' bodies, so that they all tucked their feet up behindthem on the saddle, and rode along with some anxiety, lest a falsestep or a stumble over the great stones which formed the riverbottom should throw down one of the animals, and so wet either apack or a rider. However, the crossing was
made safely, and thenclimbing the steep hill, they kept on through the timber, soon,however, camping by a little spring, in an opening where there wasfood for the animals.
By the time camp was made, the sun had set and it was too late tohunt. The little deer had all been eaten, and once more they madetheir meal on dried meat and back-fat.
The next day they kept on through the green timber, riding overridges and at a distance from the stream, though now and then theyhad glimpses of its dark hurrying waters. To the right were seensome little lakes, one of them covered with water-fowl. Across thetrail that they were following--if it could be called a trail--wassome fallen timber, but nothing that delayed them. Jack noticedthat some of the living trees were curiously bent in their growth,sometimes at right angles to the vertical a foot or two from theground, the trunk growing six inches or a foot horizontally, andthen turning once more straight toward the sky, the remainderof the tree being straight as an arrow. In some cases the bendwas more than this, the tree growing straight up for a foot, andthen turning over, growing down for a few inches or a foot, andthen making another curve, and growing upright once more. Some ofthese curves were almost shaped like the letter S, and Jack keptwondering what caused these bends. As they stopped at midday tounsaddle and let the horses feed and to eat something themselves,Jack asked Hugh about the curious way in which these trees grew.
Hugh smiled and said, "I don't much wonder you ask about that, son.I remember that I used to think about that a good deal, and wonderhow it happened. But it is easy enough to explain if you once getonto it, and you can easily enough get onto it if you travel aroundthrough the mountains enough.
"You know I told you the other day," he continued, "that when acountry has been burned over, the trees stand for a good manyyears, and then they commence to fall in all directions. Likelyenough before they begin to fall, a whole lot of young trees andsprouts have started from the ground, and are growing among them.Now, nothing is more likely than that some of these falling treesmay happen to fall upon these young saplings and sprouts. Some ofthem they smash down flat, and the sprout dies; but sometimes theyfall so as just to bend a sprout over, or so that a little smallsprout just growing is bound to grow up against the log as thesprout grows larger. These young trees are springy and bend easily.Of course the ones that are smashed down and broken off short arekilled; we never hear anything more of them. But likely enoughthere are some young and hardy plants caught beneath the tops orbranches of the fallen trees within a foot or two of the ground,and not much hurt but just held down. Sometimes these little treesare pressed flat to the ground, and when they are, they usuallydie. But if they are only bent over a few inches, or a foot or twofrom the ground, they don't always die. Instead of that they keepon growing, and of course the top of the growing tree keeps onreaching up all the time toward the light. No matter if it is bentflat, it tends to turn upward, so that all of it beyond the placewhere the dead tree is pressing on it grows straight, just like allthe other trees around it. Then, after a while the dead stick whichis holding the young tree down, rots, and at last disappears. Theinjured tree grows larger and larger, and at last gets to be a bigtree; and there is then nothing to show how this big tree shouldhave grown in such a bent, queer fashion."
"Well now, Hugh, that's mighty interesting," said Jack, "and Iought to have worked it out for myself, for three or four timesto-day I saw dead trees pressing little green sprouts over to oneside; but I never thought about that being the reason for the bendsin these big trees. The fact is, I never thought of them bendingwhile the trees were young, but supposed it must be some accidentor disease that had struck the trees after they were big."
"Well," said Hugh, "you see it's all simple enough, if youunderstand it."
"Simple!" said Jack, "Why it's simple as rolling off a log; butyou've got to understand the reason."
"Well," said Hugh, "you keep your eyes open as you ride throughthe timber, and you'll see the very thing I've been talking about,happening before your face all the time."
The wind blew fiercely all day long, though when they were inthe timber they hardly felt it, and only the sighing of thepines and occasionally the crash of some distant tree told ofthe force of the gale. They crossed Snake River about noon, andkept on southward. During a halt at the river all hands went tothe fishing, and caught some splendid trout, which they promptlycooked and which gave them a delicious meal. A little more fishingfurnished them with enough fish for two or three meals more, andJack was hard at work trying to catch a big one that he had seenrise, when he saw two great shadows on the water, and looking up,saw only a few yards above him a pair of great sand-hill cranes.They were not in the least afraid, and flying on a little further,alighted in the meadow where they fed, walking about in mostdignified fashion until the train started on again, and alarmedthem.
As they went into camp that afternoon at a little spring, Hugh saidto the boys, "Now, look here; if one of you don't go out prettysoon and kill something, I'll have to do that myself. This campneeds fresh meat. Dried meat and back-fat is good; fish are good;but we want either a deer or an elk; or, better still, if you canfind it, a buffalo; but I reckon these bison here in the mountainsare a little too smart for any of us. They're pretty scarce, andthey're pretty watchful."
"Well," said Jack, "which one of us shall go? We can't both go,because one has got to stay and help drive the animals. I'll tossup with you, Joe, to see which shall hunt to-morrow morning."
"All right," said Joe, "I'll toss up;" but as no one of them had acoin, Jack took a fresh chip, and rubbing some black earth on oneside of it, said, "We'll call that black side heads, and the othertails; and Hugh will throw the chip. You call, Joe." Hugh tossedthe chip into the air, and Joe called heads. But the chip came downthe clean side up, and so Jack was to go hunting next morning.
As soon as the animals were packed, Jack started off, keeping tothe right of the trail and up the hill. He knew, of course, thatat this time of the year the elk were likely to be found high up,and the deer, too; for the flies and mosquitoes were bad. Theunderbrush was thick, and there were many marshy places, and oncethis hillside had been covered with a great forest, for it wasstrewn with logs. The underbrush seemed higher and thicker than hehad been accustomed to, and he saw many sorts of plants that hedid not remember to have seen before; and at last it struck himthat perhaps as he was now on the western side of the ContinentalDivide, the rain-fall might be greater, and that this might make adifference in the vegetation. Willow and alders, and other brush,made riding rather difficult, and besides that, the hillsidesgrew steeper and steeper, until at last Jack dismounted, andclambering up on foot, left Pawnee to follow, as he had long agobeen trained to do. Getting up on a high ridge, bald now, thoughonce forest-grown, for the ground was strewn with great charred androtting tree-trunks, long before killed by fire, he followed theridge toward higher land, and gradually climbing, at last reached acommanding height, from which he saw the beautiful Jackson's Lake,and its lovely surroundings.
To the eastward the Red Mountain Ridge, rising above him, cut offthe view, but northeast he could see the valley of Snake River,broad near at hand, but narrowing further off, until the mountains,closing in, hid the silver ribbon of the stream's course. To thewest were the splendid gray and white masses of the Teton range,low and rounded toward the north, with long easy ridges of moderatesteepness, and crowned with great fields of snow. Toward thesouthward the mountains became more and more abrupt, until at lastthe highest peak of all, Jack knew must be the Grand Teton. Fromthis pinnacle the ridge gradually sank away again, becoming lowerand lower in the blue and misty distance. Immediately under theridge, and south of where Jack stood, was Jackson's Lake. He hadoften heard Hugh speak of Jackson's Hole and Jackson's Lake, spotsfor many years hardly known to white men, and about which mostmarvelous stories were told. Here, men used to say--the miners thatthe streams were paved with nuggets of gold, the trappers that therivers and forests abounded in fur, the hunters that game was soabundant a
nd so tame that there was always plenty to eat, and thecamp never starved; and now this wonderful region lay before him.
And yet he knew that within the past few years many people hadpassed through this place. He knew that the miners had washed thesands of the rivers, but found that they did not pay; that trappershad caught the beaver and the marten, and had soon trapped almostall of them. Now it was for him to find whether the game was asplenty as had been said.
At all events, Jackson's Lake with the wide meadows that surroundedit, and the superb mountains that walled it in on one side, madethis a lovely spot. The lake shone in the sunlight like a sheetof silver, and was dotted with pine-clad islands. On the west itswaters flowed close beneath the great mountains which rose aboveit, but on the other three sides a belt of forest grew close tothe water, and back of this belt, broad meadow lands, with groupsof trees and low rounded clumps of willows, looked almost like apark. Further to the eastward bare ridges rose higher and higher,forming the foot-hills of the main range, and still further to theeast and southeast were massive mountains, more distant--and soseeming lower--than the Teton Range, but which were the ContinentalDivide. Jack looked, and looked, and enjoyed this beautiful view;but after a little he realized that time was passing, and that hemust move on, and do his hunting, and get to camp.
He crossed the ridge, and began to ride down the side of themountain toward the south, following the crest of a hog-back, whichwould take him down to the valley of the lake by a gentle slope.Below, and to his left, was a narrow valley, in which stood greentimber, and among the green timber much that was dead and much thatwas down.