The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-05-22
FRANKS OF A
GIANT GEYSER
CBy the Rev. ]. d. GnliIan)

tby the Kew. j. ID. GlilIlan.)
Pocatello. May 1S.-The Upper Geyser
basin is the most attractive spot among
all the plutonic phenomena of the great
American Wonderland. Here are the
Devils Punchbowl. a CONCEALED rainbow
encircling a bubbIing well of boiling
water; Specimen lake, an extending ice
like mass of multi-colored and we'll
blended geySerite. petrifying about the
roote of a pine forest. carrying beauty
and destruction in either hand; old cones,
gray with age and of decomDoSed rhyo-
lite; new assures growing in splendor and
in reputation; the Morning Glory pool, an
opaleScent gem. the admiration of every
traveller, for its funnel-shaped opening,
extending to unknown and unfathomable
depths, spreading its compounded petals
at your feet with its twelve-inch copper
colored border. and making you feel as IL
you were in Fairy Land. verify.
Then here are all sorts of natural water
works, the constant and the inconstant
geysers; the noisy and the quiet; the great
and the small; those Spouting but a few
inches; those reaching a height of more
the famed Old Faithful, playing six min
utes in every sixty-five; the eBehive. SO
named because of the shape of its crater;
the Chinaman, one Of the finest, receiving
its cognomen from the fact that that
mighty manifestation was once a mere
hot well. where a pig-tailed Celestial boil
ed his laundry; the Lion. the LionesS and
the Cubs; the awe-inSpiring. GianteSs; the
peSky Sawmill. whose garrulouS regular
ity compelS attention; the lordly Castle:
the awful and cavernouS Oblong, whose
mouth resembles more than all else a
giant conch shell: the cadavernOus Grot-
to- resembling the pelvic bones of some
prehistoric mastodon: the appropriately
named Splendid, cone of pellucid pearls
by sunlight or starlight: the Riverside:
the Mortar; the Fan; the Economic; the
Turk; the Turban, and the king of them
Many of these play at short intervals.
and the most of them have been timed
and carefully catalogued. a few play
every few minutes. as the Economic. ten
times an hour; the Sawmill every thirty
minutes. and the Minuteman. every sixty
five seconds.
The Giant makes his spectacular display
once in four to seven days. varying little
below or beyond the periods named. and
so fascinating is the whole performance.
from start OF finish that 1t is well worth
the price of admission.
On the evening of July y. 1898. a large
eruption. We had arrived from the can
yon of the Yellowstone at noon and upon
inquiry learned that it was expected that
the Giant would play that afternoon some
time We camped near by. and remained
in sight of the crater until evening. Inc
crater was boiling full. rushing up. bub-
bling over. SubSiding 10 subterranean
depths, then spOusing up again. as if it
were about to make its final shoot. but
gurgling back into its den. as if laughing
at us all for being deceived.
Ten clock came. and the Giant was
still deceiving US. My companion and
made a large campfire of reSinouS pine
roots for the night was frosty, and. rolled
in our blankets. lay down to sleep until
the eruption should occur.
Soon there was a cry that, with the ex-
plosion, awakened us; ii was 1875. There
was the spectacle of a lifetime.
Imagine a common Oblong meat platter
300 feet in length and inverted: near the
beyel at one end, invert upon il saucer:
knock the bottom from a teacup and place
il upside down upon the bottom of the
saucer; let he teacup be ten or twelve feet
high, ten feet in diameter. with an open
ing eight or nine feet across. You have
then the crater and the surroundings
from which was playing the stream We
saw at the time above mentioned. The
stream was of the thickness of the throat
of that crater, eight or nine feet, and
stood, steady as giant sequoia, over 200
seemed; the falling water from that height
was an unearthly din of deluge alone
aside from the other attendant noises.
There il stood for more than an hour and
a half-a steady stream. not intermittent
nor squirting.
The last half hour of that weird things
existence was as wonderful as any part
of the whole performance A pandemO-
MUM of giant furieS could NOT produce
such a concert of shriekS, groanS, yeIls
roars and bowls as did that dying Giant
So great is the noise that ii will awaken
guests at the hotel a mile away.
We were glad for his sake when he ceas-
ed to breathe and thought it no wonder
that the ancients who lived in the regions
of such manifestations believed in a liter
al and material Tartarus. where the re-
calcitrant gods and refractory mortalS
were sent to certain DOOM