Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1885-05-22
MORE WONDERS.
FRESH DISCOVERIES IN THE YELLOW
STONE NATIONAL PARK.
Remarkable Objects of Interest in the
Lower Geyser Basin--Boi1ing Paint
BowIs-Marvelous Flowers-The
Skull Geyser-Boiling Sand.
[St. Paul Globe.1

aliiOl1So ohO 1oColO aIIlfdlS Ill Uu6 Guy
from the north was Mr.. G. L. Henderson,
stone National park, who has resided in the
park since 1882 During that period he has
made many valuable researches and dis
coveries His Investigations in that portion
of the park lying in forks of the Firehole
river south of Marshalrs hotel were es-
pecally Important. The discoveries made
in the park last year are considered of es-
pecial value and Importance, both from
their extent and character Mr.. Henderson,
replying to inquiries, said:
"The whole of last November and the first
half Of December was SO fine in the Geyser
basin that party, consisting of myself,
Assistant Superintendent W. ]. Weimer
and George W. Marshall were enabled to
make the most thorough and careful search
that had ever been made in that region of
hot springs, spouting geysers and mud vol
canoes.
"What the old guide books designate as
the Lower Geyser BASIN contained over a
thousand objects of special interest, not over
three of which have been named or even
noticed, and at best the whole was condensed
into few lines or single paragraph and
for the reason that it was both a terra i'll
cognita and innominata
"The Chemical Basin, of which there are
three divisions, contains vast bowls or
basins of decomposed rock, pulverized and
in a liquid, jelly like form, of every shade
and color, and so hot that it would be instant
death to any living thing which had the
misfortune to slip down the oily walls into
one of these seething abysses.
"The most remarkable of these boiling
paint bowls I named Lindren's Garden, in
honor of Baron Won Lindren. of Amsterdam,
who during his visit to the National park
last October was the first to observe and to
sketch the marvellous floral forms that rise
incessantly and bloom brief moment and
then fade away, to be succeeded by never
ending and ever varying display of lilies.
roses sun1owers This Kaleidoscope floral
morphology is created on the surface of a
thick cream colored paint in bowl thirty
feet in diameter. Every flower form is we'll
defined and is never repeated No waste
and no delay.
"This basin lies south of Chemical Basin
and is even more wonderful, though in an
other way. 1t contains over 800 miniature
mountains, each of which sends out puffs OF
steam and several of them are active mud
volcanoes. One of these opened at the top
like the jaws of bulldog, and there were
five successive eruptions of white lava sent
up vertically about three feet when the
opening closed with snap, after which the
lava slowly trickled down the sides of the
mountain and soon hardened into crust
like putty. Another one close by had an
eruption, sending up at each discharge, a
few seconds apart, small marble shaped
balls, most of which fell back into the
crater.
son the west bank of the Firehole river
an active geyser sent up every fifteen or
twenty minutes a volume of boiling water
about ninety feet high. The crater to the
depth of thirty feet was lined with series
of skull-like knobs ranged in rows as if a
phrenologist had been collecting cabinet
of craniums There were skulls of every
form and size, from that of an infant to a
giants in size, and from that of an idiot to
a Bacon's in form.
"Near the Skull Geyser and close by the
river is a most singular boiling pool contain
ing coarse black sand. From some mex
plicible cause this black sand rises like
huge bubble and falls back, leaving the
water for an instant turbid, after which it
becomes clear as crystal. Each succeeding
globe becomes a larger until the seventh,
which bursts with report like the crack Of
a whip The looker-on instinctively makes
a step backward until he becomes accus-
toned to this pugnacious manner of coming
to climax. This geyser suggests its own
name, the Conclusion.
about two miles east of the road leading
past the Fountain Geyser to the Upper
Geyser basin is the largest lake of boiling
water in the park or in the world.
"Walpurgia lake is nearly two miles long
by one in width at the widest place. The
shores are lined with black lavatic scoria
similar to that found at Vesuvius There is
at the head of this lake a powerful geyser
continually in action. The west side of the
cone nearest the lake cleaned like alabaster
through vast clouds of vapor that filled the
basin and foated away into the woods on
the northern shore. The east side was
black as ebony. The boiling torrent swept
over the marble front with periodical dash
and roar that was deafening. 1t seemed as
if black demon were deluging an angel
with flood of iniquity, in spite of which it
became purer and whittier. 1t was named
Mephistopheles and Marguerite"
In speaking of the popularity of the park
as national pleasure resort, Mr.. Henderson
predicted that the travel this year and num-
Der of visitors would be more than double
that of any previous season.