The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1893-01-12
AYELLowsToNE WONDER.
4 Living Spring That u . Barometer d
All Sorts OF Weather.

All Sorts OF Weather.
MAJ Jones, government engineer In
charge Of tho Upper Mississippi and
tributaries. and in charge of the roads
and waters of the Yellowstone park,
recently returned from, an exploring
tour through the Shoshono range Of
mountains, which skirts the park on
the east He was shown by q rancher
barometer spring. and found it to be
one of the most wonderful freaks of
nature ever discovered. The major
gave this account of his trip and the
spring:
"Soda Butte is q mound Of travertine
Of the park It was formed by the de-
position of sediment from a calcareous
spring similar to those at Mammoth
Hot Springs Tn g spring is now dead
but along the creek just below are sew,
eral small ones highly charged with
gases and salts of sulphur, soda. etc. j
''One Of these has developed into q
popularity that is decidedly unique.
Passing by it recently in the midst of q
severe storm, was struck with the Pc
culiar inhy blackness Of the sediment
upon the bottom of the spring and the
short outlet which leads its waters into
the bottom of the creek. Just then q
rancher came along and, seeing me
said:
"'See my barometer? That spring is
the finest barometer in tho United
States When it's going to rain or raise
- with the weather, that spring gives
the hull snap away by turning black
all over its bottom. Otherwise its bot
tom is all the same as the lilies of the
Geld, mister. The gray of the mornin'
and the roses and pinlzs of the evenin'
kinder get mixed and mingled all over
It, and she's daisy then. The bottom
turns whittier than the swan when it'x
going to snow; redder than a volcano
when it's going to be hot; greener than
it.
II thought he was telling me q fairy
story. A month later found me again
at the spring. The day was semi-clear,
but fine. Ominous little clouds were
gathering in the upper sky, and it was
getting to be something of question
what was coming. Snow in the noun
tains in November is something serious
. Going to have q little change in
the weather. suggested 1 to the
rancher, who stood near me.
sc Not much, partner; barometer says
no.
II went to the spring. The blackness
was wholly gone, and in its place was
the pearly gray of the morning, while
In the outlet the gray was softly
blended with delicate hues of pink and
:armine. 1t was beautiful to the eye,
bnt the fumes of hydro-sulphuric acid
were unbearable.
1T is a very curious fact that the
sediment from this spring changes color
with the changes of weather.
"When mother earth wrinkled out
The Rocky Mountains there was left a
| very soft and tender spot in the region
where the Yellowstone park now
lies. Here surface crust of rock was
softened from close contact with the
heat which is supposed to hold her in
terror in fluid condition, and there
was O raging of volcanoes through
craters and assures many miles in
length. The face of nature must have
been a lurid show in those days. Great
rivers of melted rock flowed down the
mountain sides, spread over great areas
of valley and plain, and Incidentally
piled up the grandest of all the wonders
Of the park, the Shoshone mountains.
This range is mass of peaks. in width
about sixty miles, in length more than
hundred. which are almost wholly
composed of lava 1t lies in apparently
horizontal beds, cut into mighty canons
by the streams, and peculiarly wealth.
cred into the vertical cliffs which car
the sum nits of the peaks I have
measured a thickness of over five thou
sand feet of lava among these lofty
peaks, which reach with considerable
| uniformity attitudes of ten thousand tc
twelve thousand feet above the level Of
| the sea- The mountain walls arr
weathered into peculiar shapes of co
lossal magnitude, making the scenery
novel and magnificent
1.-THE record of the rocks shows M
place in all the earth where SO much
volcanic energy has been expended, and
the geysers and springs now in action
are considered to be part of the dying
throes of the pentrup spirit of volca