... wagon came to grief, an unruly wheeler failed to pull at the right time, and the heavy vehicle cramped and went over crushing a hind wheel and reducing the body to something resembling kindling wood.
As a result of this not unexpected mishap, the wagon was abandoned, the load, comparatively undamaged, was made into packs, and after a 2-day delay to rest the animals and arrange the loads, the party proceeded. In his entry of October 16, Doane enumerates the equipment carried by his party.
Our outfit was an arctic one, omitting the stereotyped religious literature. We had buffalo coats and moccasins, rubber boots and overshoes, heavy underclothing, and plenty of robes and blankets. The detachment carried carbines only. Pistols are worthless in the mountains. In fact they are worthless anywhere in the field. I carried a 12-pound Sharpes Buffalo Rifle, with globe sight on the stock and chambered for long range cartridges. Our provisions did not include pemmican, Biltongue, limejuice or any other of the orthodox food preparations, but consisted of plain American rations, with some added commissaries, and an abundance of tea and tobacco. Matches were packed on every animal, and each individual carried several boxes constantly. Each man had a good hunting knife, not the crossed hilted and murderous looking kind but a short one intended for cutting up game. Our cooking apparatus included two fry pans, two Dutch ovens, four camp kettles, and some mess pans. We had plenty of axes and each man carried a hatchet on his saddle. To put together the boat required only a saw, a screw driver and a Gimlet, and we had a sack of oakum, with which to calk the seams. Before starting, there had been no solemnites, but each man’s personal outfit was complete, arranged with a view to meet all possible contingencies without delay. I had duplicate notebooks, one of which Sergeant Server carried and from his, the only one left, I take my notes for this report. Of instruments, I carried a prismatic compass, Aneroid Barometer, max and min thermometers, and a long tape measure. None of these were provided by a generous government, but all were purchased by myself—as usual in such cases.
On October 17, the party lost the first of the pack animals.
The morning air broke chilly and the air filled with frosty mist. One mule, a queer slabsided one was down, paralyzed across the kidneys. Here was an emergency. It was unable to stand alone when lifted to its feet, and would starve to death in a few days if we left it. But one remedy was available and that was a severe one. We heated kettles of water and scalded the animal along the spine. The first kettleful brought him to his feet, without further assistance, and a few cups full from a second restored his nerves enough so that he kicked vigorously at his kind physicians, and refused further treatment. He was fearfully scalded but restored, and returned to Fort Ellis next spring of his own volition, got entirely well and survived all of his comrades of the pack train several years.
A heavy snow storm began on the night of October 19, the party laid over on October 20, and on October 21 made an early start for Mount Washburn, camping on its upper slopes that night, to the great relief of the Lieutenant.
This was the highest point to be crossed (9,200 feet) and I was terribly uneasy lest we should find it (the gap) blocked with snow as a depth of 30 feet is not unusual in February. Beyond and at our feet now lay the Great Basin of the Yellowstone, with its dark forests, its open spaces all wintry white, and its steam columns shooting upward in every direction. It was like coming suddenly upon the confines of the unknown, so differently did the snow landscape appear in the summertime. To us it was an enchanted land, the portals of which had just been safely passed, and we struck the downward trail full of enthusiasm, reached the open basin of Chrystal Spring Creek, the lowest point in the Great Basin, and camped in snow two feet in depth. Distance 18 m. Elevation 7250 feet.
On October 23, the party reached Yellowstone Lake, camping at its outlet. En route that day Doane encountered a tremendous elk herd.
Taking light loads and leaving a man with balance of the plunder to keep off the bears as these animals are affected with a childish curiosity in relation to government rations, I started in advance of the party on the Lake trail, and was riding along slowly with my eyes shaded when my horse shied violently, with a snort, and stood trembling. I jerked away the shade and saw that I had ridden close up to a herd of at least two thousand elk. They had been lying in the snow, and had all sprung up together, frightening my horse. In a minute the great herd was out of sight, crashing through the forest, the old bulls screaming their strange fog-horn cry. It was a magnificent sight as the bulls were in full growth of horns, and the calves all large enough to run freely with the herd. No game animal has the majestic presence of a bull elk when he is not frightened, and in herds they manuevre with a wonderful precision breaking by file at a long swinging trot and coming into line right-left or front to gaze at some object of apprehension with a celerity and absence of confusion truly remarkable. In chasing them on horseback the first effect is to break them into a gallop, when they move more slowly and soon tire. In deep snow, when the herd breaks the trail for the horse to follow in, there is no difficulty in catching them.
I remember a chase in the Yellowstone Valley one winter day when two of us killed seventeen elk in less than an hour. Two large wagon loads of meat. On this occasion I did not shoot, as we had a long march to make and it would have caused delay, but watched them ’til lost to view and rode on. This sign of abundant game was exceedingly favorable and gave a confidence which nothing else could have inspired.
For the following 2 days the expedition remained in camp on the shore of the lake, preparing the outfit for double transportation by land and water, the pack animals and part of the men to follow the shoreline, the others to take the boat across the lake. The little boat was assembled, the seams pitched, and the “Teeps” erected for the first time, bough shelters having been used previously.