Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1883-09-12


Park, August 25.-visitors to the Yellowstone
region who enter the park from the north are
to the Mammoth Hot Springs a. the
first Of tho great wonders Of the reservation set
apart by the government for the enjoyment and
Of the whole people not only of this
country, but for the people Of any other country
who may choose to come here. Having reached
the Yellowstone company's hotel, the great
springs are only step away. Along stepitturns
out to be when one walks toward them, as they
loom weirdly up before the house in many white
and gray and brown terraces and platforms,
some Of them steaming like well-fired engines.
The green trees and stretches of bunch grass
below and above them set these strange springs
off to striking advantage marking the outlines
of their curiously shaped bowls very distinctly.
Following the beaten road, one soon comes to
line deposits are intermingled. Climb higher,
over the ruins of bowls long ago dry, and under
foot, there is q glaring white, almost impalp-
able dust. Aside from the path there Is no
dust, but hard crust Of mineral substance.
presenting an area many acres in extent. that
can be best likened to a well-packed coasting
field. The dust in the road, where the calcare-
Gus deposit has been ground fine by carriage
wheels and the feet of ponies, may blow into
the eyes to make them tingle sharply, but
one soon becomes used to it.
When the plateau next to the highest is
reached the visitor is attracted by a column Of
rising steam to large pool OF irregular shape,
with cOral-like edges tinged with sulphur and
water is seen boiling vigorously, with an angry
hiss and seethe. The depth of the pool can
only be conjectured. Dip in your fingers and
you find it to be hot. You are prevented from
examining it too closely by the clouds of hot
steam that are hurled into your face. But you
can get close enough to observe the exquisite
grays and yellOws and blues and greens of the
water. colors and tints which have hitherto de-
fed the efforts of painters who have endeavOred
to reproduce them. There are many of the hot
violence. but all surrounded by deposits
tinged with orange where they are
yet moist. and bleached to snowy
white where they have been long ex-
posed to the sunlight. Taste the water. and it
Is found to be strongly impregnated with sui
phur, for which you have been prepared by the
Odor brought to you upon the clouds of steam.
There are no geysers here, and the scientists say
that they cannot be found where silica is alb
sent from the waters as it is here, while sulphur
is absent from geysers, where the silica is known
to abound. Three square miles of surface are
covered by the calcareous deposits of these
strange fountains, part Of which area is the
wide plain OH which the Yellowstone hotel is
built Steam Is seen In the early morning curl.
ing from assures hitherto unObserved. If YOU
put your ear down to these openings strange
gurglings and rumblings like the movements of
cayernOus engine are heard and puffs of
scalding hot air will frequently be forced
out The springs along the hillside in the
course of time have thrown up calcareOus
deposits almost as fragile to the touch as chalk.
basins of varying width and depth, arranged in
scallOped forms, in places taking shapes that
resemble the cOnvOlutiOns of the human BRAIN
and again the fancful tracing Of the home of
the coral insect. The readiness with which the
deposits from the springs adhere to substances
and objects thrown into them has become well
known. and as you 60 from one pool to another
you see far down in the blue waters. that are as
Clear as crystal, pine cones, bottles. hOrseshoes
lunches OF flowers, bits Of wood. suspended to
poles let down by visitors. who will stop to
reclaim them after an exposure of day or two,
when they will be found covered with q thin
white coating.
Up and down the hill. to the right and left.
are seen springs and evidences of former SPRINGS
now dry and crunbling at the edges under the
tramp of tourists who Chamber all over them to
get at bright sulphur specimens One of the
upper springs is so large and its flow of hot
water is so tempered by greater inflow of cold
water as to furnish pleasant bathing place
the spot, by the way, at which the English
dudes were in jest compelled to throw up
Their hands and submit to be robbed in broad
daylight. While almost everybody is interested
III the springs and no one fails to visit them eX-
anime the boiling pools the overflow across the
brow OF the hill, the pulpit rocks the Cleopatra
spring, the caves and other sights, the springs
soon become tiresOme to contemplate as they
glare in the eyes of the hotel people. From the
plane, at the top of which the Y Yellowstone hotel
is built, the land falls to the east steeply, meet
ing the opposite slope of the rugged sheepeater
Cliffs at the rapid Gardiner river. Persons who
go to the bottom of the hill and walk along the
edges of the winding stream find small hot
springs bubbling and steaming close to the
colder waters Of the Gardiner river. Trout
are plentiful in the river. and respond quickly
to the invitation OF the angler who tempts them
with a blue fly or a grasshopper. Some of the
gentlemen of the party who had been studying
the guide-bOoks, and who were disposed to
doubt some OF the stories told in them, got out
their rods the very afternoon they arrived here,
and having selected promising places near hot
springs. cast their flies. Mr.. George NJ. Shep-
herd, OF Chicago, who was one of the skeptical
ones. soon hooked a ''speckled beauty" With
out Ss r aetac nj it from his line he swung
fish plump into the Kissing hot water
of the sulphur spring. He held it there for a
moment or two, and then, having been satisfied
that it was possible to catch and cook fish
VIII Mitnout moving from the point selected to make
the catch. he put his cooked trout into one of
the tomato cans, with which the Rocky Noun
tains appear to be thickly sprinkled and returned
to the hotel to show it to an interested throng.
The same proof of the assertion made by the
yeracious guide-book has since been several
times repeated.
At the first glance the Mammoth Hot Springs
are interesting. The visitor who climbs to the
top OF them is excited to wonder at their ex-
tent. their curious formation. the depth and
color of their pools. and the wide extent of the
desoiatlon which they have caused After
lew days, however. they become wearisome.
The glaring white of their sides, streaked with
dirty gray and tawny yellow. Cypress the eve.
me caverns. having been once explored. lose
their attractiveness, and only the most Jealous
students care to toll through the dust that must
De passed to reach them, and which clings tena-
ciously to garments and boots in spite of yigOr-
GUS brushings It seems almost q pity. too.
tliat the site for the hotel should have been Sc
lected so close to them 1t is convenient to be
aole to lead the hot sulphur water in pipes to
the hotel and supply it for baths. which are but
step from the door. But in getting upon calca-
reous plateau Is acres in extent, the builders
nave set up their house behind q high grassy
mound, at the top Of which lives the government
superintendent OF the park, mound SO high
as TO cut of the view to the southwest and
inclose only few uninteresting pine trees. a
Few pits marking the location OF extinct geysers.
a few stumps, and a field now destitute of other
vegetation than sage brush. It may be suscepti-
Die OF cultivation. If it is the Improvement
Company ought to produce cover of green tor
It and make it to blossom as the rose. Until
tnat Ii done the foreground of the view from
the front piazza will be anything but one to
admire or rest the eye. Beyond the hill. at
the right, and the edge of the sterile plateau
vvSn e. Ill \