THE GEYSERS AND PAINT POT.
FOUNTAIN HOTEL, YELLOWSTONE PARK, June 23, 1892.
This morning at eight o'clock we left the Mammoth Spring, in a
strongly built and comfortable wagon drawn by four horses, with eight
passengers and a careful driver, and soon commenced to see the wonders
of this remarkable park. The road ran near three lakes, each measuring
a hundred acres or more--one green in color, one blue, and one
yellow--the like of which cannot, I think, be seen anywhere else on
earth. On examination, I found that the water was clear, and that the
pronounced and brilliant colors came from chemical deposits on the
bottom of the lakes. We did not linger long to look at these
remarkable phenomena, but drove on, and were soon passing over a road
made of natural glass, by the side of a great mountain of the same
material. I picked up several pieces of this glass, and found that it
was green in color, and looked like any other glass, while alongside
the road and up the mountain we saw large masses of the same material.
The only conclusion we could arrive at was, that in some prehistoric
time the materials of which glass is composed must have been in
juxtaposition, and were fused into their present form by a volcanic
eruption. It is safe to say that nowhere else on earth is to be found
a roadway made of glass.
We reached this hotel at 6 P.M., and saw near by the first of the
geysers, spouting hot water fifty feet high. We made our way over a
thin crust to see this geyser, so thin that it seemed as if we might
break through and disappear forever, reminding me of a former
experience, when walking along the edge of a volcano in Japan, a place
was pointed out where two guides who had wandered from the path, broke
through the crust and were lost. We passed on to examine what I
consider the most extraordinary natural phenomenon to be seen on the
face of the earth. It is called the Paint Pot, and is a depression of
about thirty by forty feet, with walls of hardened clay three or four
feet high. In this so-called pot are half a dozen or more cones, much
like inverted flower pots, about six inches in diameter at the top,
and two or three feet high. From the centres of these there are
constantly flowing streams of hot clay, each stream of a different
color, varying from pure white to brown. In other parts of the big pot
the soft clay was coming slowly up from centres and overflowing,
forming figures like flowers, very beautiful to look at. The soldier
who escorted us was very polite, but would not permit us to carry away
a bit of the clay, though there were tens of thousands of tons lying
about. We could see, near by and at a distance, several other geysers,
spouting water fifty or more feet high, and we learned from the guide
books that there are no less than ten or twelve thousand boiling
springs and geysers within the reservation, which is sixty-five miles
long by fifty-three wide, containing about three thousand four hundred
and seventy-five square miles. We were informed that after sunset a
bear came regularly, back of the hotel, to regale himself on the
refuse thrown from the kitchen, and I went to see him; but the
mosquitoes were very thick, and proved such an intolerable nuisance
that I was obliged to go away without getting a look at the beast.