Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-09-27
A Three-Mile Valley.

nagja," or Raven Rift, which is almost as
frightful in its rugged, ragged, precpitous
depths as the All-mens-rift itself. Then 1t
soon climbs rocky hill. quite as steep as
the roof of house, and one wonders how
his tough little pony, with a man on his
back. will mount the hill. But the pony
has been there before, and he knows how.
He carefully picks his way, sticks one we'll
caulked toe into this crevice and another
on that projecting ledge, and thus scram-
bles up like a cat on the roof of wood
shed
Everywhere along the road is the evil
dence of terrific volcanic action. Huge
blocks of lava often line the path. Some
times one crosses acres of unbroken lava,
rippled in motionless, circular waves, as
though some giant of prehistoric times had
stirred the molten mass with big pudding
stick, or as though stiff breeze mad
ridged the lava into wavelets which in
stantly froZe as they rippled.
Around one great extinct volcano we
make our way, soon after leaving Thingvel-
lie, frowning and precipitous, with aWtul
assures and overhanging tons of once mol
ten rock, which look as though they had
Just been spewed out of the craters mouth,
while other parts of the mountain side
seemed knee deep In cinders.
Off to the left a curious cloud arose and
began to bear down upon us, which we soon
found was a cloud of sand from desert
to the north, for it filled our mouth and
eyes with its fine grit.
Daintily and carefully the ponies picked
their way, now around projecting blocks OF
lava, now across hummocky fields, with
first long step down and then long step
up, and now through narrow, Well-worn
rutS, where our St1rrupS almost dragged on
the sod on either side.
Several shallow streams must be forded
before the geysers are reached, and one or
two where the water Is well up to the po-
MES saddle girth.
The traveller crosses at length a plain full
Of hot springs, and at last. ten hours after
leaving Thingyellie, comes to the far-famed
geysers themselves The chief Of these,
and. indeed, the only one worth the journey,
is itself a very unreliable gusher. Some
times 1t goes off at Unexpectedly short In
tervals, and then is sullen and obstinate,
and the unfortunate traveller may watch
week without seeing any special demonstra-
tions, unless he takes particular pains to
excite 1t to activity.
This Is done by throwing in Jumps of soap
or butter, which apparently disagree with
the stoma CHI of the sleeping monster, for he
vomits them out again, and, often, in his
rage, throws out a column of water 100 feet
into the air.
A Gusher One Hundred Centuries Old.
There is something grotesque about CIV
ing this old gusher of 100 centuries, an
emetlc to make him gush once more, and
when this is repeated every day or two by
each visitor the grotesque descends to the
ridiculous, as though a puny man should
tickle a Vesuvius with a straw, to make it
belch fire and smoke.
But that is the way the geyser is treated
almost every week in summer time; dosed
with butter and with soap for the sake Of
the paltry curiosity of the tourist. Bah!
No wonder nature Is Disguised and made
sick and vomits in her rage.
However, it may be justified, on the prin-
ciple that bird that can sing and wont
sing, must be made to sing, and this old
bird, SO often persistently and sullenly re-
fuses to sing for the benefit of travellers
who have come thousands Of miles to see
him that extreme measures seem Justifia BILE.
Sometimes, however. the geyser gets even
with the traveller by refusing to spout,
however much soap has been administered,
or by going off at such unexpected and IN