Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (May 1, 1883)
May, 1883, I io6 THE WEST SHORE. rail, ami continues on for more than five hundred mile I 'j ill union with the Missouri near the boundary line ltwccn Montana and Dakota. It ii up tlii stream we proceed in entering the park, crossing the boundary line at the mouth of Gar diner river, one of its .smallest tiibuUiics. To dckcrile a complete trip through this enchanted region, or to call attention in detail to all the stents of lieauty ami objects of wonder, would require n large volume. The first object of special interest is the MAMMOTH HOT SI'KlN'iS of Gardiner river, near which the Yellowstone National l'uik Improvement Co. is erecting an iinmriiM: hotel to cost $200,000. They are situ ated on the west bank of (iardiner river, on the side of While Mountain, and extend in terraces nearly 1,000 feet above the stream, the most active being at the top. In pouring down the mountain tide the water has left calcareous de posits, building up huge bowls or reservoirs. The sleep hill for nearly a mile is thickly incrusl- ed, and though covered with a growth of cedar and pine trees, ami somewhat decomposed, shows the same wondctful architecture as the active springs above. I lirre the white deposits give them the pearaiice of a froen cascade. The step-like terraces are covered with basins, varying in height fmm a few inches to eight feet, and as the watrr flows from one down to another it loses a portion of its heat, and the bather can arleel a pool with any temperature that may meet his idea of health and comfort. The broad, flat terrace at the lop is some two hundred yards in diameter, ami covered with these basins, many of lliem in a stale of decay. The largest springs ate here, the most extensive one licing near the edge of the terrace. It is twenty-live by forty leei in diameter, and the water is so " perfectly transparent that one can look down into the beautiful ultramarine depth to the bottom of the basin. The tides of the basin are ornamented with cornl-hke forms, with a great variety of shades, fmm pure white to a bright cream-ycllow, and the blue sky, reflected in the transparent waters, gives an arurc tint to the whole which wrp.sses all art. Underneath the sides of many of these pools are rows of stalactites, of all sires, many of them exquisitely ornamented, formed by the dripping of the water over the margins of the banns." T,c sculptming is by no means the chief beauty, for the de,Hit is adorned with a wondetful variety f delicate and artisticallv. arranged color., ..The mine,thlI(,r(1 nui(1 lay. down pavements here and there of all the shades from bK,t H.e, to fKM.lm mM layei.of U.ght sulphur.ycllow, interspersed with Unts of K,cen." The extent and variety of these Kt.at .pIIII(.4 u w..n.Kiful. Their dc,osit covers a total aict of two Muaie !, tml nn,y jn Ncw Zealand can y,l,.,,g be fu,u ppl0chig them in niatnuude. The wa.e. ,s vcy lcl,c;al l0 invalids who bathe m the pool, or in Uth-houses near by. Mlt.t.LI. OAKHStk ANU tvsuc Mm aiany oilier kcuc thit cu.kt the 1 a. union aic to t lound in iltepist id- this Vu-.mlv ,1.. tieatest bring the UlUof Middle Gard.ner, th U.Kcnd jco let m U fo,m of a Made, too loct being su a s,nt:e ,,lune. The Ku,c fa;s aUH of Wea Ga.d.uer, .re enhancing, and ltc "Uu.cJ a. ,l,e el,.u,e of a beautiful canyon. Th ...cf fail. wf fc., om , u 1 and scolloped on the margin, breaking into peculiar and fantastic forms. Passing over towards Madison river we come 10 OIISIDIAN CLIFF, composed of a species of lava called volcanic glass. It is of a deep, clear, beautilul black, with here and there fine specimens ot red. I ne road is quarried from the edge of the cliff, and is entirely built on glass. Continuing on past the Lake of the Woods, through Norns and Monu ment geyser basins, and by Gibbon falls and canyon, we come to the LOWER GKVSF.K BASIN, on Fire Hole river. Here the chief attraction is Fountain geyser, with a crater twenty-five feet in diameter, and an outside circumference of 150 feet. This is usually full of transparent water, and the visitor stands on the brink and gazes far down into its depth, beholding a fairy palace sparkling with gems of the most brilliant colors. Suddenly he hears and feels heavy thuds beneath lis feet, struggles of the imprisoned waters below to break their bonds. He hastens away, and at a convenient distance turns to witness a great col umn of water thrown sixty feet into the air. The length of activity is about one hour, and then all is quiet for five hours, when the play is resumed Near by are the mud or paint-pots, covering an area of seventy by forty feet, one end having a pink hue, while the other is snowy white. These are constantly agitated, and throw up little jets of mud that fall in beautiful rings, only to be broken in another instant by a second eruption. A few smaller geysers ami burning pools complete the at tractions here, with the exception of Fairy falls near by, where a small stream leaps down a per pendicular height of 250 feet. Some four miles up Fire I lole we come to the Middle Geyser Ba sin, popularly known as Devil's, or hkll's half acre. Here are to be found the grandest hot springs on the globe. Of the largest Professor Mayden says: "It seems to have broken out close bv the river, and to have continually enlarged its orifice by the breaking down of its sides. It evidently commenced on the east side, and the continued wear of (he under side of the crust, on the west side, has caused the margin to fall in until the aperture, at least 250 feet in diameter, has been formed, with walls or sides twenty u. thirty feet hm,w,nK e lamina.- of deposition perfectly, The water is intensely agitated all the time, hnil inr? liL a koi.I.L r 1 .- . . vum,, ,rom wnich a vast column of s.eam ts ever rising, filling the orifice. As the passim breeze sun-en ii ......... r , " i" " 'w a moment, one IlKlks down into this lerrlKI. L! .. ., " ""- iiiing pit with -..umm geyser is another one of It was so named heivmc. ..i. firs known eruption in ,881, at the time I "M"WM PassinE through the basin, ' oeen simnlv a snrin k..t i:..i. 10 one just described. It sud (ItMiiV cumuli .... 1 . r"M,"i um a column ni u. -u.. fcet in .!..,, ,0, he height of 300 feet. This J"l'ly continued several . minutes, and, Ly lh .v.. Wiji , U,e Goine five mil.-. i,,,.. ... r-- ... p rue tioie tenor." the attractions. to the celebrated we come WLR GEYSER BASIN, 01 uie many scenes of wonder Tl hE.eathoieoflh;Cev se, ITi! i give springs and geysers are scattered from one end ' uie pars 10 uie omer. rtotessor Hayden est mates 2,000 of them in these basins on Fire Holt river, and 10,000 in the whole park. William 1 Marshall thus speaks of these exhiUiuai of natural forces. "Here are more geysers thanta all the world beside, and they spout columns of boiling hot water, of sizes varying with ife jj. mensions of their onhces, from a few inches to twenty feet in diameter, and to heights ranging til the way from ten or fifteen up to 250 or 275 feet the eruptions being accompanied by a constant succession of miniature earthquakes, by a terrible noise like almost continuous underground thunder and by the evolution of immense masses of steam which tower hundreds of feet above the water, The subterranean explosions, from twenty to seventy a minute, sounding and jarring the ground like a heavy artillery duel, manifest themstlves in mighty pulsations along the column, shooting pwards and outwards in jets, rising to ever- varying heights, and constantly dividing and sub dividing, and shivering into milk-white spray,' "A geyser eruption is not at all like the play of an artificial fountain, in which the water is pushed up by pressure to a uniform heigh1., or if made to vary must do so with a regularity which soon be comes wearisome, but is like a cataract of crystal clear, boiling-hot water not failing in despair of resistance to gravity, but, as if instinct with life, leaping towards heaven, shivering upwards (pre cisely as a cataract does downwards) into rockets of milk-white spray, each as it ceases to rise emitting a little puff of steam, which proclaims what was the force which lifted it, and which now, like the soul deserting the body, leaves it, no longer able to triumph over gravity, but, un supported, to Lll to the steaming mound below in showers of shining pearls and flashing dia monds, while the central portions of the column drop down in immense volumes that strike the mound w ith a roar like a cataract, or li ' thunder of distant surf. Every instant the column is changing its height and shape, as the diirMJ and mysterious forces of the under world, shaking the mountains in trim struggles for freedom, pul sate along it j and it is always enveloped and un mounted by vast banks and lofty pillars ol ie. ever swaying with the wind, constantly assuming fantastic forms, and crowned and fnngen wuu rainbows. These indescribably magnificent du- nlava nrrnr with some irevsers at fixed perioOi, as in the case of Old Faithful, which spouli f an orifice seventy feet long by two feet wide, eij sixty-five minutes, its eruptions lasting from fo" to six minutes. It is the only large geyser kno in the world which spouts so frequently and wiia uch unfailing regularity. In more than one hundred eruptions of ii, which I witnessed my two visits to the park in 1873 and '?7J never knew it to be more than three minute hind its appointed time. Most of the gre' geysers, however, spout at very irregular inter varying from three or four hours to several day or even two or three weeks, their er uplioM from fifteen or twenty minutes to two hours, and sometimes even as long as "'De "No geyser spouts constantly, though io the small ones spout most of the time, ix hot eruptions, some pour out from their bewii ornamented craters great puffs of steam, h mense high-pressure engines, little jets ing spray being constantly thrown to the P
