Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1886-09-15
Real Wonders Of Yellowstone
Park-the Geyser.

deed none are known except those at Hecia
in Iceland. which in number are but as one
to the nearly 100 and more in the park, and
in comparative beauty or force, if these are
the proper words for geysers, almost as
nothing. The boiling springs-sometimes
called geysers in California-have no sucn
DEVELOPMENTS. Here columns of boiling
water of water alone it can be called, are
sent from the bosom of the earth. varying IN
size from a few inches TO many feet In
diameter, according to the orifice from when
there is an escape.
The height of the column is from few
feet to 25O feet. Sometimes you hear them
roaring under the earth from whence comes
all these outpourings. and here there Is
noise at times like the rolling OF distant
thunder At times also the volume OF this
escape is greatly increased and the roar Is
also much louder. You feel and hear these
pulsations Of the earth near and under your
feet lust as YOU behold the ascending column.
The spray is almost as beautiful as the spray
from the Bridal Veil one sees at the lofty
and pretty waterfalls in the Yosemite, or ON
the cascades of the Columbia, or at Niagara.
The rising columns aacend at times with all
the force of a cataract, but moving in the
opposite direction. You look with amaze
ment at these ceaseless disturbances and
wonder all the time as to the producing
causes, their long continuance, and their
possible or probable cessation. The heat
within the earth, of course, produces the
boiling water. and the heat is so intense that
in it you cannot safely touch your I'm
gers. The spray is of the finest substance
and is so Ii ht as to be moved by the wind
and thrown at times many feet from the
orifce. If too near you feel it on your face
or see it on your clothes, and are very glad
TO run from it to place of safety.
The monarch of the geyssrs is known as
'Old Faithful" and every one comes to see,
and pause long in seeing, its constant spout
ings, from hour to hour, night and day.
through all the remembered years of past
time II gives due notice of its coming in
the double form of the still small voices of
the earth and in the incre asing roar of its
Its visits are as regular almost
as the clock, and they are made once In each
hour. In hundreds of experiences the time
has not varied more than ten minutes These
spoutings of Old Faithful come from an ORR
fee seven feet in height by two feet in width.
In its form, rise and faithful work it has no
equal in the world, as most Of the large gey
sers varv in their movements, and fail to ap-
pear at times for many days. Some, indeed,
have passed away altogether as far as one can
tell. Some also are remembered as seen
once only in all past time.
Some of the geysers are also quite recent
in the new explosions from the earth, and
some are constantly changing. Here and
there you may see hundreds of single jets
making the faintest motion. and those near
by the larger springs bubbling and boiling in
all the force of cauldrons of heated water.
How many of these springs there are no
one can tell The named or noted ones
number about III |, and it is supposed there
are 2 900 and more in the park all told.
Many of the active geysers have
been named in the past. Some have done
their work and disappeared. but
whether for year, or for many wears, no
one can tell. Among the names, one is the
Kicker-and some clever lady, probably a
Blaine republican, nut liking the Kicker,
named it the Mugwump. in the Blaine and
name ever since and no other name will ever
be attached to the once Kicker Geyser. The
"Sawmili Geyser," also, by one of our party,
was named the Mugwump. There are some
special wonders in all these wonders of ma
ture. One of these is the power these
geysers have in destroying or overpowering
every surface thing within reach. Live trees
disappear where the gevsers are or have been
at work You see them rising from the old
centres of these deposits, blasted, dead, and
ghostlike in their appearance.
In one place there are fourteen terraces
all of which were made by the outpouring OF
boiling springs. They have left the earth
not only covered with geyserite, but stranger
in appearance than anything else upon the
face of the earth. At most an almost snowy
wilderness il left of the busy workings OF
ages gone by. Where there were once grea
activity and heat, near by are the cooler
streams with trout in them. and close within
reach the still heated waters where they are
placed and in FIVE minutes ready for the
tongue or table. Though real fish story
this is really no fiction. for many have per
formed just this kind of fishing