Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1883-09-21

Strange Views from n Hotel In the
Great Park The springs Annually
Diminishing In Force,


A correspondent of the Philadelphia
Lcdgcr, at Mammoth Hot Springs, in
Wyoming, discourses us follows
The present hotel, where am writing,
has strange location, being built upon
one of the terraces of the Hot Springs
formation, with the craters of extinct gey-
sers, their cones and yawning caves in the
foreground view from the front windows.
The terrace extends but short distance,
and then the ground sinks into the gorge
through which the Gardiner river flows.
with mountain peaks beyond, the highest,
Mount Evarts, rising 1000 feet. Look
out Hill is Immediately in front, and on
top of it is the house of the Government
Superintendent of the Park, with the flag
floating over it. The higher terraces Of
the Hot Springs, n white mass streaked
with brown, are on the right hand. The
best idea the reader can get Of this place
is to conjure up the popular impression
of the Internal regions and provide II
plentiful supply of heat and birthstone.
For several square miles, rising from
Gardiucr River westward i'll successive
terracrs to the height of about thou
sand feet above the valley, the ground is
underlaid with internal fires, producing
boiling water. steam, and sulphur, which
make their way out to the surface III hum
dreds of places. The earth is cracked
into assures and every spark of vegeta-
ton is burnt up, while beneath can be
heard the running water and kissing
steam. From almost every opening hot
water and steam escape sulphur hangs
in stalactites from the rocks, and i'll some
parts the odors are almost overpowcring.
The Indians are said to have avoided this
terrible place, and it is no wonder that
the frightful tales told by its early cX-
plorers were disbelcved. Yet the scene
Is ms beautiful MS it is startling Laies
and pools are framed by the hot springs
with rim, like edges over which the waters
run, and trickle down upon terrace after
terrace, forming the most beautiful
shapes of columns, towers and coral deco
rations from the lime deposits, and paint
ing upon these delicious colors in red,
yellow, pink, blue and brown. So long
us the water runs nature continues this
decoration but rs soon as the flow ceases
and dries the air turns everything white
and many of the more delicate formations
crumble. The whole of this gorgeous
structure has been built up by ages OF
steady and minute deposits made by the
waters, the rate being estimated ut about
1-l6 of an inch in four days. An area OF
three square miles is occupied by these
calcareous deposits, the more recent Oh
which the present springs are located COW
ering about 10 acres. The terraces ex'
tend two miles back from the river, there
also being other separate patches OF old
deposits in the ncighborhood that show
the surface OF the springs in earlier times
to have been even more extensive than 1t
now is. Some fourteen different terraces
can be traced upward from the river bank
to the highest formation. Two cones o'
extinct geysers rise from the terrace OF
which the hotel is built, the Liberty
Cap, " forty-tive feet high, and smaller
and blunter formation called the 'Devil'
Thumb" which it is said to resemble
Both have been built up by the slow de
posits from orifices still seen in their tops
but from which water long since ceased
flowing. All the springs shift their local
ity as the deposits are made, SO that the
details of the scene steadily and slowl.
change.
In climbing about this remarkabl,
place, the top of which is elevated abou
$500 feet above the sea, the effect of TIN
rariiied air is quite apparent in the short
ness of breath quickly arising from un
usual exertion, but the effort is amply re
paid. Some of the most beautiful form
and colors nature ever produced are her
disclosed. There is the "Orange Geyser,
its sides streaked with orange, yellow an'
red, from the little wavelets slowly trick
ling down from the streaming spring a
the top, which goes off at quick interval
like the exhaust of n steam engine. A
the "Stalactite Cave" the flowing water
add green to the other colors, and ais
scale the rocks in places like the back o
n fish, while below hang stalncIites will
water dripping from them. The roof o
the cave is small but filled with beauti
full formations One of the finest dis
plays is "Cleopatra's Bath" with "Cu
pid's Cave" beneath, the way to them be
ing through "Antony's Gate, all built NJ
of deposits. Here the finest possibl
coloring is painted on the rocks, while ho
J water and steam for the bath are in am
pie supply. The springs all form fla
, basins around the oritices, with turned u
edges, over which the waters flow, an
then, trickling down the front of the tel
race, paint it, When the flow ceases an
the dry air has burned the color white,
forms a spongy coral, pretty to look at
hut crumbling under the touch. TIL
currents run with n width Of hundreds {
/ feet over terrace after terrace, paintin
them all, and then seeking the Gardint
river. Everything over which the watt
t flows gets coated by the deposits, whic
. upon drying turns white, and peopl
= crawl about in the hot water, hanging II
n hnttlao iupa aud hnroa obn 10 uat tha,