Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1872-01-26
The New Wonder Land.


A LETTER has been received by Pro
fessor Henry, the secretary OF the Smith
sonian Institution, which gives graphic
account of the marvellous Yellowstone
region. The writer is Mr.. Elliott, the
artist, who went with the Hayden explor-
ing expedition. The accounts of the
Yellowstone country hitherto received,
even when brought by authorities so re-
spectacle as Lieutenant Doane, have been
so extraordinary that confirmatory testi-
mony has been anxiously looked for.
Even now, and with every respect for the
new witness, part of whose testimony we
shall quote, the official narrative of the
Hayden expedition must be deemed
needful before we can altogether accept
stories of wonder hardly short of fairy
tales in the astounding phenomena they
describe.
What is known as the "Great Canon"
is depicted by Mr. Elliott in way fully
attesting previous statements. 1t is
huge basaltic tissure, or rent in the earth,
beginning at Tower Creek, and ending at
the foot of the Lower Falls of the Yellow
stone. Hence it is twenty-five or thirty
miles long. The canon varies from one
to two thousand feet in depth, and along
| its bottom the river whirls with immense
velocity, appearing from above NOW
blue and now snowy ribbon" The
attrition of the stream for countless ages
has worn the sides of the chasm
| into strange shapes of 'towers, points
and pinnacles," and these are "gayly
| painted by the waters of the num-
berless warm and hot springs which
ooze out from the fissures into variety
of tints and tones, dazzling white, intense
red, purple, saffron, yellow, etc, and fair
ly bewildering the eye, at first, by their
! singularity and grandeur" The canon is
moreover fringed in some places with
rows of basaltic pillars, quite regular in
! form, from twenty to thirty feet high,
and standing, without crack or flaw, in
regular tiers one above the other
The great falls are more imposing still.
! They are ga broad, evenly deep sheet of
clear ice water, leaping down at one
! bound four hundred and fifty feet" I'm
broken by any point or division, they
rush over the ledge a vast curtain, as of
swift, foaming lace. These are the Lower
Falls, the Upper being just the height of
| Niagara, or one hundred and fifty feet,
and but half mile distant from the other.
Thus, within that short space, the stream
makes a descent of six hundred feet.
Not far away is the lovely Yellowstone
Lake, which has shore line OF nearly
]
of over four hundred feet. The water OF
the lake is icy cold, and it is frequently
"thick and green with millions of alge.
1t is well stocked, like the river, with
trout, some of great size, and it contains
other tinny monsters, the like OF which
are unknown elsewhere. But the chief
marvel of this section would seem to be
the "Geysers of the Fire-hole Basin: -
| These are at the head waters OF the Aladl-
son, and in magnitude and extent of area
reduce the famous boiling springs OF Ice
land to complete insigniticance. MT
Elliott writes:
Il have stood by a crater, and have
seen column of hot (boiling) water six
feet in diameter ascend with single
bound, vertically to height of 200 feet
pause there for an instant, and fall to
its sillicified basin in a thousand watery
streams, and a million prismatic drops.
This was repeated ten or fifteen minutes ;
then all would be quiet; the water of the
cistern became as still as that of mill
pond, and apparently as inactive. This
geyser, which is one of many, we named
the Grand. 1t plays at irregular inter
walls of twenty-four to thirty hours for
from ten to twenty minutes. Another,
aamed by noane Old Faithful plays
at intervals of only an hour apart, throw
ing up an immense steady column to an
elevation of $50 feet"
There are fifty geysers and over a
thousand boiling springs, according to this
authority, within fifty miles of each other,
and it is evident that these objects must
rank as among the most remarkable ply
sical wonders of nature.
These, however, are but portion of tine
strange sights to be seen in the Yellow
stone Valley. BY way of still further en-
forcing their memory of the expedition,
the party were favored, not long since,
with an earthquake, the character of
which is verified by several witnesses
who, at the time of the shock were fifteen
miles apart. We have heard enough now
to be satisfied that the region in question
must be among the most wonderful OF
this wonderful central continent of ours,
and to suspect that it deserves in this
wise, absolute pre-eminence. Professor
Hayden's official report, which, we hope,
will not long be delayed, will enable us to
arrive at conclusions more positively.
Y Times.