The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1886-10-13
rHEExCELSIoR GEYsER.
Some Facts About the YeIIowstone's Ter
rifle Water Volcano.

The famous Excelsior Geyser, which
burst into active eruption in the Yellow
stone National Park recently. is the
most terrible water volcano in the
world. 1t was discovered and made
known to the scientific world bv Prof
Hayden in 1871. At that time il was
not distinctly characterized as u geyser,
but it attracted his attention as mar
velously active and sinister-looking cal
dron of boiling water and was so inn
pressiye that he charted it in his re-
ports and made particular mention of
it both on his first and second explora-
tious of the Yellowstone geyser basins.
The Excelsior. or, as it is called in
some of the Governmental reports.
Sheridan Geyser, is situated on the
right or westerly bank of the Fire Hole
River, about eight miles south of the
forks of the Fire-Hole. where they form
junction with the Gibbon. 1t is the
great feature of what is known as Hell's
Half Acre. 4 detached terrace of vol
canic springs lying between the lower
and upper geyser basins In each of
these two greater basins there are nu-
merous active geysers, but at Hell's
Half Acre the Excelsior is the only gey-
ser, the other thermal pools being SIM
ply hot springs-one of them, however.
termed the Great Prismatic Spring, be-
ing of extraordinary size and beauty.
The Excelsior and Prismatic are the
two chief objects on the terrace. When
Hayden first saw the Excelsior it was a
deep blue cistern, scalding hot and
greatly agitated by the subterranean
heat Its waters were level with the
floor of the terrace; it had a narrow,
fissure-like outlet, furrowed by the ac-
ton of the water, on the sinter of
which the terrace had been formed and
through which Its water was discharged
into the Fire-Hole. Ii was then of
diameter of something like fifty feet.
On his second visit Hayden found that
the basin had been considerably en-
larged by the action of the spring, and
that its outlet channel had grown wider
aud more irregular For seven or eight
years it was an object of awe to the few
travellers who found their way through
this weird region.
1t was the night of Jan. "a 1881,
however, that the great pool suddenly
and unexpectedly burst forth as a gey-
ser. with much of the dreadful roar and
subterranean rumbling of a fiery vol
cano and with most destructive energy
against its own walls. The outburst or
explosion occurred after midnight, and
was heard by George w. Marshall, a
pioneer who had wandered into this
wilderness of wonders wear or two be-
fore and bad made his camp at the
forks of the Fire-Hole, where he lives
to this day. Ii was in the dead of an
icebound winter in the Rocky Noun
tain realm, but Marshal SAYS the noise,
the rumbliDg. the explosions. and the
trembIings of the earth that accom-
panied the eruption awoke him at a
distance of certainly eight miles and
appalled, him. Nevertheless, he sur
missed what the uproar portended, and
early next morning he rode over TO the
Half-Aere 10 see what sort of Internal
excavation had been going on during
the night. His anticipation was veri-
fed. The Excelsior Pool was then in a
perfect frenzy. and the destruction it
had wrought was terrible. The terrace
and the opposite bank of the river was
strewn with masses of rock. bowlders,
and huge as well as small masses of
siIicious sinter. of which not Ouly the
surface of the bank but its substratum
and even the lower depths and chan
nels of the great spring itself were COM
posed. In its terrible throes the mon
ster had belched volleys of these from
its throat 1t had thrown up also per-
feet deluges of scalding water that had
drenched everything for hundreds of
yards around, had raised the level of
the river foot, and heated its current
for miles.
Thereafter the Excelsior became one
of the marvels of the region. though
comparatively few were fortunate
enough to witness its eruption, which
took place at irregular intervals of ff-
teen to twenty-five days. and lasted
about six to eight hours. These great
Commissions throwing column of wa
ter about 200 feet high, tore open the
outlet and made it a deep and ragged
channel, widened the margins of the
pool itself. and lowered the surface of
the water about twelve feet to the level
of the lowest point of the outlet. The
basin has now a diameter of 200 feet.
In the winter of 1888 it ceased its
eruptions. and since that time and un-
til its recent outbreak. had remained
quiescent-N Y. Herald.