The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1911-05-11
flow necessarily gather great hocks
OF wild ducks and other fowl

flow necessarily gather great focks
OF Wild ducks and other fowl
In this region. nearly 5000 feet
ABOVE the sea, where the mercury
SINKS away below zero from Deem
Der to March, there Is far more won
der and mystery in midwinter than
the summer tourist ever gets hint
OF. Civilization is miles away across
wilderness Of shining, snowclad
mountains. The gale-driven snow
dances over this waste and is piled
INTO fantastic drifts. Sometimes II is
swept with a roar through the noun
tain gorges faster than the swiftest
railway train ever travelled. 1t covers
TO the caves some of the big hotels.
In summer times these places are buzz
zing with life, but in winter they are
pictures Of desolatlon, almost indistin-
guishable from the rest OF the land
! scape beneath the enshroudlng snow.
If the caretakers wish to get out they
have to obtain exit from a window on
one of the upper floors. Tall trees
buried In the snow appear like bushes
The general aspect Of the country Is
entirely changed.
Masses Of Purest White In Place Of
Brilliant Hued Rocks.
The incompatible wonder OF the
Grand canyon of the Yellowstone, that
huge cash in the earth whose walls
glow with every tint of Jewels and
flowers, is a mass of purest white save
where here and there the winds have
swept away the snow and left the bril-
liant-hued rocks exposed. Their reds
and yellows and puppies and crimsons
glow the brighter in contrast with the
/ surrounding Wilderness. The black TO
liage OF the pines stands out sharply.
Where the water slides over the preci-
pice and forms the Great Falls OF the
carded wool. Down at the bottom OF
the gorge, where the waters are swift
and deep, they are black. There are
immense icicles 200 feet long. An ice
bridge hundred feet high Is formed
at the base Of the falls.
The great geysers play endlessly,
each at lts appointed period, although
no one is there to see them. Every sew
enty minutes Old Faithful sends its
columns of water and steam 300, 500
sometimes 1000 feet into the air and
holds it there for three minutes Some
times the winds unfold from It's top
an iridescent banner Of spray; at 9th
er times the fountain form Is a perfect
cone In winter its boiling hot water
gives off vast cloud of drifting
steam. At nightfall of a January
evening, this immutable water clock
OF the Yellowstone becomes a specter
OF ghostly white, a sight so strange
and startling that even those who
neighbor with 1t never lose their awe
Of its majesty All about the geysers
the foliage of the trees is heavily
laden with ice, giving the trees a thou.
sand fantastic shapes. A cloud of va
por. like the steam from some great
manufacturing city. hangs and drifts
over the geyser basins-the workshop
Of nature.
The "slsterhood" Of the eeysers.
There are more than fifty in this
giant sisterhood of geysers. Not even
in Iceland or New Zealand, or any
where else where the earth is still be
ing made is there such convent OF
their order as in the Yellowstone. Nc
one has ever been able to describe
them adequately in words any more
than it has been possible to tell on the
printed page the extent Of the won
ders in this workshop Of the Al
mighty" It is place where almost
every form Of creative eccentricity in
nature is found
But the geysers play unseen, and
the agents that are molding the earth
keep at their tasks in solitude all win
ter long The great streams and wa
terfalls never rest In their toll of tear
ing down the heights and building III
the valleys. Only during three months
Of the year Is II possible for many PEG
ple to see this Titanic work of Nature
in progress. II those who travel fol
Measure every summer knew how Gu
rious and beautiful place the parl