The bed of the spring is about fifteen yards in circumference, and composed of loose, hard, gritty stones, through which the water boils in great quantities.

It is slightly impregnated with sulphur, and so hot that a piece of meat about the size of three fingers was completely done in twenty-five minutes." Next day, July 8, the party reached the forks of the Jefferson River, where they had cached their goods in August, 1805; they had now travelled one hundred and sixty-four miles from Traveller's-rest Creek to that point.

The men were out of tobacco, and as there was some among the goods deposited in the cache they made haste to open the cache.

They found everything safe, although some of the articles were damp, and a hole had been made in the bottom of one of the canoes.

Here they were overtaken by Sergeant Ordway and his party with the nine horses that had escaped during the night of the seventh.
That night the weather was so cold that water froze in a basin to a thickness of three-quarters of an inch, and the grass around the camp was stiff with frost, although the month of July was nearly a week old.
The boats taken from the cache were now loaded, and the explorers were divided into two bands, one to descend the river by boat and the other to take the same general route on horseback, the objective point being the Yellowstone.