Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1894-08-10
PACIFIC COAST TOURISTS,
CHAPTER No. 2 of Their Advcn-
lures.


Trip Of Several Hundred Miles.
The tourists, having travelled 1000 miles
eastward from the Pacific coast, over the
mountains of Washington, the fertile
plains of the Yakima and Snake rivers in
Oregon, the sands of Idaho, and the cop
per and silver laden mountains OF Mon
tana, are, June q, at Livingston; from
there to follow the valley of the Yellow
stone river for 81 miles to Cinnabar, the
terminus of the railroad TO the National
Park.
The train passes through the gate of
the mountains" canon a mile long,
whose nearly perpendicular walls rise 1000
feet. barely admitting the railroad and the
river scarcely 100 feet wide, and into "Par-
adise valley" whose 80 miles of emerald
greenness is in fine contrast with the bar
rem ranges, whose snow-covered peaks lift
themselves on all sides. Another canon,
more picturesque than the first, and we eX-
change the cars for coaches, and we make
the ascent of 1000 feet in eight miles,
along the Gardiner river, whose rapid wa
tiers we ford, under the brow of an over
hanging cliff and lonely pinnacle, tipped
with an eagles nest. AT night we reach
the Mammoth Springs hotel, the rendez-
vous and distributing point for tourist
travel in the park.
One remarkable view from the veranda
is of immense terraces of the geyser forma-
ton, 40 to go feet high, and covering four or
five acres, of dazzling brlliancy of color
white, red, yellow, brown and their shad-
ings- which have been formed by the de-
post of calcareous and mineral matter
from the waters which now flow over them.
Two peculiar objects loom up at the foot
of the terraces, the Liberty Cap 80 feet
in height, and the Devils Thumb" the
latter partially imbedded in the hillside,
supposed to be extinct geyser springs. The
strange whiteness and barrenness of the
little area, shut in by long, low, lava-capped
mountains, excite an apprehension which
does not wear off, when, with the morning,
our party of % leave the place in strong
mountain stages, for 166 miles of touring
in this natural wonderland.
The four stages wind up the sleeps; en-
ter the canon by the Golden gate so
called from the yellow, notified color of
the rocks; pass over the trestle-built road,
which clings to the perpendicular sides and
sharp angles on, under the shadows of
black "Obsdian cliff''-a glass not made
by man, for the Lord manufactured it
amid earth's furnace fires-out into val
ley filled with lakes of blue and green wa
tiers, and arrive at noon for lunch at Nor
ris basin, where the party has an introduce
ton to the geyser phenomena.
In weird, uncanny, sunken area, desc
late of vegetation, steam and hot wa,er are
issuing from many small craters and ifs
sures, among which the "Constant' hobs
serenely up every 60 seconds. Close beside
the road huge irregular pile, with a
chimney-shaped opening, emits quantities
of steam, with a strong sulphurous odor
and a sound like that of a locomotive,
Within a few feet of this steaming "Black
GROWER are snow drifts, which, like the
dead trees and the ground around it, are
covered half an inch in thickness with a
deposit like very wet salt.
The stages come, and we ride among the
gorges of the Gibbon canon; through the
shady, green Elk park, where we look in
vain for the elk sometimes beside of, and
again through, the rapid but shallow wa
tiers of the Firehole river; and the end of
the day, crowded with experiences and
with sights both strange and lovely, brings
rest and Tefreshment at the Fountain no.
tel. In this valley of the Firehole are
hundreds of geysers and hot springs; and
wherever the eye turns toward the forest
of steam shooting skyward.
We climb a ridge hard by, and, picking
our way among the warm rivulets and
steamng surfaces, walk to the rim of the
"Fountan' as it is about to break forth.
The pool, 30 feet in diameter, fast filling
with water, which increases in force of eb-
ulition, soon throws into the air innumera-
bic jets then an enormous volume of ii
leaps upward and overflows the crater rim.
After about 10 minutes it subsidies, and we
look down upon the simmering waters, as
blue as an aqua marine, covering the white
cCral-like basin, save only small, tortuous
opening, leading fathomlessly downward.
The Mammoth paint pots is a collection
of strangely colored cauldrons, large and
small, within which bright-hued sub
stance, like paint or mortar, bubbles and
bOils with spluttering sound.
Three or four miles down the valley are
geysers of great size and lakes of prismatic-
colored water. The whole section known
as "Hells half-acre'-in reality much
larger-is in constant agitation, clouds of
steam constantly hanging above it; and we
ride past it, almost in fear lest this Excel
sior," whose interval is seven or eight
years, should, from its crater $50 feet wide,
develop one of its terrible eruptions.
A few miles further, and we are in the
midst of the many geysers of the upper
basin, where some of the most beautiful
of them hold hourly revel. "Old Faith
full greets our arrival, and every 6j min
utes, by night and by day, through winter
and summer, during all the months of the
year, it sends into the air, $50 feet, its col
umns of water and steam. Here the
"Giantess," the "Giant;' the Lion -
"Lioness and "Cubs;" the "Bee Hive
the "Sponge," the Castle" the "Grotto''
and very many others, hold high carnival
at intervals varying from one to 30 hours,
A third day brings a long ride of AZ
miles, during which we thread narrow,
winding canon, now catching a glimpse Of
a foaming cascade, and again of the mir
ror-like waters of the Shoshone lake. A
steep and narrow ascent around the edge:
of the cliffs and above the broadening
deepening Yellowstone; over the Cont
mental divide, the spot indicated by sigr
board, marked "Pacific slope" Atlantic
slope;' through and around a snow drift
eight feet deep, and we come to the beau
tiful Yellowstone lake, an inland sea TOOK
feet high, set among the loftiest mountains
over whose crystal waters one may ride by
steamer for Is miles, or thread its forest
fringed shores to the Lake House.
Now by approaches more and more
grand we go past mud geyser and sulphur
-. 60 IL fte