Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1882-06-08
YELLOWSTONE PARK.
The Wonders of the Great American
Park.
San Francisco Chronicle Letter. |

San Francisco Chronicle Letter.
Near the middle of the upper geyser
basin, on Fire Hole river, is "Grand
Geyser," undoubtedly the most remark
able in the world. 1t is situated on the
summit of high ledge of stalagmite.
The orifce has diameter of twenty-five
feet, and when not in eruption is visible
at depth of 100 feet. The edge of this
basin is bounded by heavy fringe of
rock, and stalagmite in solid layers is
deposited by the overfowing waters.
When an eruption is about TO occur the
basin gradually fills with boiling water
to within a few feet of the surface; then
suddenly, with heavy conclusions, i'm
mense clouds of steam rise to the height
of 500 feet, and the whole great body of
water, twenty-five feet in diameter, as
cends in one gigantic column to the
height Of ninety feet. From the apex
of this column five great jets shoot up,
radiating slightly from each other, to the
extraordinary altitude of 300 feet from
the ground. The earth trembles under
the descending deluge from this vast
fountain; thousand Kissing sounds are
heard in the air; rainbows encircle the
submits of the jets with halo; the
falling water washes away the shelly
strata, and seething flood pours down
the slope and into the river. It is the
grandest and most terrible fountain in
the world. After playing twenty min
utes it subsidies, the water lowers into
the crater out of sight, the steam ceases
to escape and all is quiet. Its waters
are of deep ultra-marine color, clear
and beautiful. The undulations of the
gigantic fountain in the bright sunlight,
when its jets are at their highest, afford
q spectacle Of which any description can
give but feeble idea.
THE LOWER BASIN.
The majority of visitors to the Park
consider the lower Geyser Basin more
attractive than its rival. 1t is broader
and more easily surveyed as a whole,
and its springs are more numerous,
though not so powerful. Nothing can
be lovelier than the sight Of the white
steam jets, tinged by the ray Of the
morning sun, ascending against the
back ground of dark pine woods and the
clear sky above, The variety in form
and character of these springs is quite
remarkable. A few of them make beau
tiful deposits of sulphur, though the
greater number appear to be purely
silicious. One very large basin, about
forty by sixty feet in diameter, is filed
with the most beautiful slime, varying
in tint from white to pink, with its
great surface constantly boiling up. The
extinct geysers are the most curious OBJ
jects of all. Around their borders the
white incrustations form quaint ara
besques, resembling petrifed vegetable
growths, and the sides Of the reservoirs
are fancifully indented, like the recesses
of some fairy cavern. The water is
bright blue. Over its surface curls
light vapor. Through its crystal clear
ness one may gaze apparently to un-
fathomable depths, and seen through
this wondrous medium the white walls
seem like frosted silver. When the sun
strikes across the scene the last touch of
beauty is added. In one of these extinct
geysers the bleached skeleton of a
mountain buffalo was discovered. By
whatever accident he met his fate there,
no monarch was ever so magniRcently
entombed. No cathedral shrine, with
zits white marbles, can compare with
4his sepulcher in the wilderness.
FAN OF HOT WATER.
The Beehive. Giantess and Comet are
also wonderful geysers. One of the
group, the celebrated Fan" geyser, de-
serves special mention. 1t requires more
inside machinery to operate this geyser
than to work all the others combined.
In fact, it can only be compared to
massive natural engine, twenty-five by
100 feet, with two small valves, two es-
escape pipes. and at the extreme upper
end large smoke-stack and five sepa-
rate and distinct craters. At distance
Of a couple of hundred yards sound