Twenty-nine miles east of Billings, the next divisional terminus and important trading point on the line of the road, the traveler will observe, rising from the right bank of the river, a huge mass of sandstone, interesting as bearing upon its face the name of William Clarke, cut in the rock by the veteran explorer himself, when he visited the locality in 1806. He will, about the same time, be able dimly to descry the peaks of the Big Snow Mountains, which, at first scarcely distinguishable from the fleecy clouds that hang around them, subsequently loom up grandly, constituting one of the most beautiful pieces of scenery in the Northwest.
The disciple of Izaak Walton will not have traveled 225 miles along the banks of the Yellowstone without having seen many an inviting spot for indulgence in what his great master called the most calm, quiet and innocent of all recreations. His arrival, therefore, at Billings, the largest town on the upper river, and the metropolis—notwithstanding that it has a population of only 2,000—of a region larger than Maine, South Carolina, West Virginia or Indiana, affords a not unfitting opportunity for a brief reference to the incomparable trout fishing afforded by the numerous streams accessible from points on the Montana and Yellowstone divisions of the road.
The Yellowstone river itself, west of Billings, has no superior as a trout stream. It contains trout of four distinct varieties, and fishing is so easy as at times to be in danger of losing its charm. The individual scores of various tourists, reported in the American Angler during the summer and fall of 1885, and not containing any that were phenomenally large, averaged twenty-five trout per hour for each rod, a record with which the most ardent angler ought surely to be satisfied. A majority of these scores were made in the vicinity of Livingston, near which town another visitor is reported to have caught twenty-one fine, large trout “after supper,” while two others are stated to have brought in 160 as the result of “a day's sport.” The Yellowstone also contains a gamey fish known to local anglers as grayling, but pronounced by Mr. W. C. Harris to be the whitefish (Corregonus tullibee). That gentleman refers, in a recent article, to the abundance, in these waters, of the celebrated “cut-throat” trout, whose size and abundance, in conjunction with the picturesqueness of its habitat, will, he adds, when generally known, “make a visit to the Yellowstone imperative to the angler who aspires to a well-rounded life as a rodster.” Among other waters, mention may be made of Rosebud Lake, a beautiful spot reached by wagon from Billings, where the trout fishing is declared to be splendid; Little Rosebud Creek, near Stillwater, where eighty-seven trout are reported to have been caught in four hours with a single rod; Prior Creek, near Huntley; Mission Creek, twelve miles east of Livingston; and Sixteen-Mile Creek, sixteen miles from Townsend, all of which are said by visitors to afford excellent sport.
It must not, however, be supposed that the angler enjoys a monopoly of sport in this country of varied attractions; for grouse and ducks are plentiful, as are also, on the mountain ranges, deer, elk and antelope.
Passing Springdale, where the traveler will observe hacks in readiness to convey visitors to Hunter's Hot Springs, two and one-half miles distant, the train approaches, amid scenery increasing in grandeur, the little city of Livingston. Whatever interest may, in the near future, attach to this place as a resort of the gentle brotherhood from all parts of the continent, it will certainly fall short of that which will belong to it as the gateway of that world-renowned region, the
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK.
“Situated,” to quote the distinguished geologist, Professor John Muir, of California, who recently visited it, “in the heart of the Rocky Mountains, on the broad, rugged summit of the continent, amid snow and ice, and dark, shaggy forests, where the great rivers take their rise, it surpasses in wakeful, exciting interest any other region yet discovered on the face of the globe.” While it contains the most beautiful and sublime of mountain, lake and forest scenery, its fame rests, not upon that, but upon the extraordinary assemblage of the curious products of Nature's caprice, and the infinitely wonderful manifestations of almost extinct forms of her energy that are found within its borders. Approached by a branch of the Northern Pacific Railroad, extending southward from Livingston to its northern boundary, and the only railroad within one hundred miles, this remarkable region has, by a judicious expenditure of public money and by admirable individual and corporate enterprise, been rendered so easy of exploration that the tourist may within the brief period of five days visit all its most interesting points.
So majestically do the snow-capped mountains tower above the lesser hills that inclose the charming valley whose various windings the railroad follows, from Livingston to Cinnabar, that the traveler can scarcely believe that still more magnificent scenery lies beyond. And truly the cloud-piercing Emigrant's Peak, with its famous mining gulch; the yet loftier Electric Peak; the colossal Sphinx; and that most singular formation, the Devil's Slide, form the most fitting introduction that the human mind can conceive to the wonders of the National Park.
Conveyed by an excellently equipped Concord coach from the terminus of the railroad to the hotel at Mammoth Hot Springs, six miles distant, the tourist finds himself surrounded by all the conveniences of modern hotel life.
And within full view of the hotel, from which they are distant but a few hundred yards, are the exquisitely filigreed and richly colored terraces formed by the Mammoth Hot Springs, not the least of the wonders of this famous region. Here one hardly knows whether to admire more the delicacy of the formation or that of the coloring, the former not being excelled by that of the finest lace, while the latter surpasses, both in brilliancy, harmony, and subtle gradations, any chromatic effects known to exist beyond the limits of this enchanted ground.