business engagements
would prevent their going. Then came news from
Fort Ellis that, owing to some changes made in the disposition
of troops stationed in the Territory, the military
portion of the party would be unable to join the expedition;
and our party, which had now dwindled down to ten
or twelve persons, thinking it would be unsafe for so small
a number to venture where there was a strong probability
of meeting with hostile Indians, also abandoned the undertaking.
But the writer and his two friends before mentioned,
believing that the dangers to be encountered had
been magnified, and trusting by vigilance and good luck to
avoid them, resolved to attempt the journey at all hazards.

We provided ourselves with five horses--three of them
for the saddle, and the other two for carrying our cooking
utensils, ammunition, fishing tackle, blankets and buffalo
robes, a pick, and a pan, a shovel, an axe, and provisions
necessary for a six weeks' trip. We were all well armed
with repeating rifles, Colt's six-shooters and sheath-knives,
and had besides a double barreled shotgun for small game.
We also had a good field glass, a pocket compass and a
thermometer.

[Illustration: C.W. Cook]

Mr. Folsom followed the Yellowstone to the lake and crossed over to the
Firehole, which he followed up as far as the Excelsior geyser (not then
named), but did not visit the Upper Geyser basin. On his return to
Helena he related to a few of his intimate friends many of the incidents
of his journey, and Mr. Samuel T. Hauser and I invited him to meet a
number of the citizens of Helena at the directors' room of the First
National Bank in Helena; but on assembling there were so many present
who were unknown to Mr. Folsom that he was unwilling to risk his
reputation for veracity, by a full recital, in the presence of
strangers, of the wonders he had seen. He said that he did not wish to
be regarded as a liar by those who were unacquainted with his
reputation. But the accounts which he gave to Hauser Gillette and myself
renewed in us our determination to visit that region during the
following year. Mr. Folsom, however, sent to the Western Monthly of
Chicago a carefully prepared account of his expedition, which that
magazine published in July, 1870, after cutting out some of the most
interesting portions of the story, thus destroying in some measure the
continuity of the narrative. The office of the We