The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1889-11-09
YELLOWSTONE WONDERS.
Baths RivRIing the Roman and CoIors
NIeing the Opal

Baths Rivhling the Roman and Colors
VIeing the Opal
Even at first sight there appears to
be something unusual and peculiar
about this little opening in the pines
in the center is a shallow depression
that is bare of verdure. the surface
white with an incrustation that proved
to be salt, while the converging and
deeply worn trails leading to it and
the numerous game tracks show it to
be what in the hunters vernacular is
called a lick. 1t is the dried bed Of an
ancient hot spring that is now shallow
alkah pool in the early spring. Cross
ing this little meadow we found the
creek cutting its further edge. while
the white slopes on the opposite side
and the smell of sulphur in the air sug
gest at once to those familiar with
Geyserland the presence OF hot springs.
Picketing our horses whore they
might Craze upon the salty grasses
that grow about the lick, we descended
the bank to the border of the creek and
found its waters flowing between
smooth white walls of polished marble,
and an expansion of the stream bor-
dered by this creamy white rock forms
a natural bath reservoir that even the
luxuriousness OF ancient Rome could
not have equalled. In the center the
water is boiling furiously, the bubbling
mass rising several inches above the
surface of the creek. but the water is
quite cold, the commotion being due to
the copious emission of gas from some
vent in the bed of the stream. Over
this spring stranded log reaches from
bank to bank and served as foot
bridge, which we crossed with that
sure footedness born of the knowledge
that our clothes could no longer be
spoiled by a wetting should we fall in.
On the further side of the creek we
first notice a low mound of red ma
terial, evidently iron ochre, and just
beyond is a spring now depositing
this substance. The water, clear as
crystal and icy cold, issues from the
center of little bowl of ochre, sur
rounded by the brightest of green
moss. We were curious enough to
taste this water and found it slightly
acid, highly charged with gas and tast-
ing like our soda water. But it is the
surface of the little basins and pools,
filled by the overflow of this spring,
that interests US most, for the surface
of the water is covered with an ever
varying iridescence whose brilliant
tints put to shame the hue of the pea
cocks tail and surpass the changing
fires of an opal.
This feast of color, with its kaleido-
scopic changes, fascinated US, and
many minutes were spent watching it
before ascending to the summit of a
little platform overlooking this spring.
The slope is formed of gray rock,
whose riffled surface at once suggests
the terraces of travertine. the so-called
''formation" of the Mammoth Hot
Springs. 1t is, indeed, the same de-
post from hot springs, but altered and
crystalline, the material nearer the
stream resembling a coarse moss, pet
rified into white, nearly transparent
crystals. The lower layers are, how
ever, nearly as dense and hard as flint.
and it is this material that forms the
marble banks OF the creeks, where its
surface is polished until it is as smooth
as glass, by the stream itself.-U. S.
Geographical Survey.