San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-04-21

y
=. Amory. Miss Anna, her daughter, and s.
B., her son, of Fond du Lac, Wis, aud Mrs.
Z. c. Waters, of Billings, Mon, on a tour of
exploration
Our purpose on leaving the Grand canyon
was 10 visit the scene of recent eruption
caused by the earthquake at the Black vol
canic BASIN situated about midway between
the Grand canyon and Yellowstone lake.
On approaching the volcanic basin the day
we left the lake, we saw vast clouds of vapOr
rising at point south and east of the Becher.
Quickening the speed of our horses, we
reached the field of action in time to witness
one of the most phenomenal exhibitions of
volcanic energy to be met with in this land of
wonders where everything is phenomenal.
There is circular basin about one hundred
and fifty yards in diameter, in the center of
which is a crater about sixty feet in circum-
ference and about fifteen feet in depth. Out
of this crater assembled dense clouds of steam
that was given off in successive puffS,
THE MUD BELCHER.
At first so dense was the vapOr we could
only hear the commOtion in the caldrOn, as
if a thick pudding were slapped against the
wall by gigantic masOn's trOwel. At one
point we saw what seemed like huge black
tongue or an enormous paint brush reSem-
bling the switch used by a blacksmith to keep
off flies, only a thousand times larger shoot
out beneath the clouds and reach twenty-five
feet up the sloping crater, then slowly re-
cede, leaving a thick coat of dark, Shiny
paint on the wall. For few seconds the
wind came in puffS and forced back the cloud
This mud volcano has evidently been inactive
for several hundred years. The outside wall
rises from ten to twenty feet and is composed
of the same pitchy substance as that seen at
the point of present activity. There is a
channel through which this mud once flowed
down into the Yellowstone river.
Both walls are composed of the same ma
terial, and the quantity discharged during
former eruptiOns must have been enormous.
The eruptiOnS occur at intervals of about an
hour and continue until these waves of mud
make the circuit Of the crater Terrific as
the exhibition of energy now is it is inSigniii-
cant compared with what it must have been
when it sent its tOrrld lava in a continuous
stream twelve feet wide and six feet deep
into the river over thousand yards distant.
On the following day we went from the
Lower G,ysrr Basin hotel to SEE an early
eruption Of the Fountain geyser. The Evan
gplno gry,er in the ParanasuS basin never
fails to excite the wonder and admiration of
the tourist when attention is called to it, 1t
is heart shaped and has beautifully Silicated
border with two graceful curves that resem-
Die the double lobeS of a heart as drawn by
st. Valentine artists.
No contrast can bc greater than that which
we saw in the Evangeline and that which we
q Il.
situated about two hundred yards east Of the
ThanatopsiS, or about four hundred yards
from the better known Fountain geyser. Be
fore reaching the Paranasus basin, and as we
swept around the western base of POrcupine
butte, Mrs. Amory called attention to Il con
tiuuous discharge of steam that rose to an
immense height about a mile distant and
suggested the propriety of fastening in order
to SEE an eruption of the Fountain. Know
ing we'll the location of the Fountain geyser,
| had no hesitation in deciding that the great
steam discharges we were witnessing could
not be that of the Fountain, but must be an
entirely new outbreak, caused doubtless by
the earthquake.
Nor could | remember seeing anything in
that m2ig hDorhool that could possibly have
developed into a great steam-aqueous geyser
of the first magnitude, except the Bats Wing,
Il quiet gryser Of the gas-aIueous variety,
and one that had been growing less aud less
every year from the fact that the TWO wings
Of the twin lake that composed it had been
steadily dcponItirS white siMcate substance
resembling lsingIass. This deposition going
on much faster III winter, indicated, Judging
from the rapidity with which the lakes have
been diminishing since lSS3, that in Il few
years the Bats Wing would become a ~uDtcr-
ranran lake, frozen over, 50 to Spra:, 10y the
accommodating deposits.
THE TEMPEST.