g up
great volumes of water hundreds of feet high into the air, boiling hot
springs, deep and gorgeously painted canyons, stupendous water-falls,
curiously colored rock formations, and a mountain lake filled with the
finest of fish.

So well versed was he in woodcraft that he could travel through pathless
forests and over rugged mountains as unerringly as by well-beaten
trails. A love for wild nature and adventure had become his ruling
passion. After hunting and trapping for several years he returned to St.
Louis. Here he told his friends the marvels that he had seen and his
adventures with Indians and wild beasts; but his hearers being doubting
Thomases, listened with incredulity to his astonishing stories.

He related his experiences and what he had seen to an editor of a St.
Louis paper, who, after listening patiently to the narrative, informed
Coulter that his wonderful adventures, glass mountain, and boiling
springs among the snows were falsehoods and could find no place for
publication. Coulter gave interviews to many other persons, and stuck so
persistently to his statements that the region which he had so minutely
described was derisively dubbed "Coulter's Hell."

Coulter's experiences certainly were marvellous. On one occasion, when
he and a companion were trapping along the Madison Fork of the Missouri
River, they were surprised by a company of Blackfeet Indians who killed
his friend but spared his life for the time being. After the Indians had
consulted for some time in regard to what should be done with Coulter,
the chief asked him if he could run fast. Coulter replied that he could
not. He was in reality the fleetest runner among the western hunters,
but he told the Indians that he could not run fast, since he concluded
that there was a chance of saving his life by running should he be given
the opportunity.

[Illustration: The Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming Looking down
canyon from Grand Point]

He was stripped naked and taken several miles away to give the Indians
some sport before killing him. Then the chief commanded his followers to
remain back while he led the captive some three hundred yards in front
of them. At a given signal he told Coulter to save himself if he could.
At once the war whoop resounded and six hundred demons were on the track
of the fugitive. Coulter strained every nerve to outdistance his
murderous pursuers. His great exertions caused the blood to spirt from
his nostrils a