The Lion, Lioness, Grotto, Fan, Riverside, Saw-mill, and other geysers had eruptions during the night, which we failed to properly observe, but, from the noise of their spouting, all were in full force and activity.

LOWER GEYSER BASIN.

Fountain.-Usually had an eruption each forenoon, those observed being of from 10 to 15 minutes' duration, with water column from 60 to 90 feet high, and very spreadifig. Rowland's lameness and the dense fogs prevented extended observations in the Lower Basin, as well as in the Geyser Meadows.

New Crater.-Exhibits two kinds of eruptions—one of them, each half hour, 50 feet high, and another about 100 feet high daily.

Minute Man.-Eruptions 25 or 30 feet high each minute, with little variation.
Emerald.—Evidently has an occasional eruption, although none were observed.
Vixen.-Eruption from 40 to 50 feet high, each two or three hours.

Constant, Twins, Triplets, and many others in the Porcelain Vale, seem in nearly constant eruption, so that the spray and fogs greatly obscure the sun's rays by day, and render the nights dark, damp, and unpleasant.

The theories regarding these and other kinds of hot springs in the park were so fully treated of in my report of last year, and the records of their eruption, notably during the latter part of this season, in the foregoing trustworthy report of Wyman, leaves but litte necessary to show that, with the exception of the local changes at the Mammoth Hot Springs and of the Safety-Valve Basin in the Grand Cañon, there is evidently a far greater development of power than ever before witnessed throughout the entire Fire-Hole regions. But as to the cause or causes, probable duration, or future tendencies, we only know that they are at variance with the accepted and apparently correct theory of their dwindling character, with one marked exception. This is in the Midway Basin of the Fire Hole River, where the evidence is conclusive of not only spasmodic, but continuous increase of power.

The following description is from Hayden's Report of 1871, pp. 114, 115: About three miles up the Fire-Hole from Camp Reunion we meet with a small but quite interesting group of springs on both sides of the stream. There is a vast accumu lation of silica, forming a hill 50 feet above the level of the river. Upon the summit is one of the largest springs yet seen, nearly circular 150 feet in diameter; boils up in the center, but overflows with such uniformity on all sides as to admit of the formation of no real rim, but forming a succession of little ornamental steps, from 1 to 3 inches in height, just as water would congeal from cold in flowing down a gentle declivity. There was the same transparent clearness, the same brilliancy of coloring to the waters; but the hot steam and the thinness of the rim prevented me from approaching it near enough to ascertain its temperature or observe its depth, except at one edge, where it was 180°. It is certainly one of the grandest hot springs ever seen by human eye. But

the most formidable one of all is near the margin of the river. It seems to have broken out close by the river, to have continually enlarged its orifice by the breaking down of its sides. It evidently commenced on the east side, and the continual wear of the under side of the crust on the west side has caused the margin to fall in, until an aperture at least 250 feet in diameter has been formed, with walls or sides 20 to 30 feet high, showing the lamina of deposition perfectly. The water is intensely agitated all the time, boiling like a caldron, from which a vast column of steam is ever arising, filling the orifice. As the passing breeze sweeps it away for a moment, one looks down into this terrible, seething pit with terror. All around the sides are large masses of

Fio. 27.-Excelsior Geyser, 1872.

the siliceous crust that have fallen from the rim. An immense column of water flows out of this caldron into the river. As it pours over the marginal slope, it descends by numerous small channels, with a large number of smaller ones spreading over a broad surface, and the marvelous beauty of the strikingly vivid coloring far surpasses anything of the kind we have seen in this land of wondrous beauty; every possible shade of color, from the vivid scarlet to a bright rose, and every shade of yellow to delicate cream, mingled with vivid green from minute vegetation. Some of the channels were lined with a very fine, delicate, yellow, silky material, which vibrates at every movement of the waters. Mr. Thomas Moran, the distinguished artist, obtained sketches of these beautiful springs, and from his well-known reputation as a colorist, we look for a painting that will convey some conception to the mind of the exquisite variety of colors around this spring. There was one most beautiful funnelshaped spring, 20 feet in diameter at the top, but tapering down, lined inside and outside with the most delicate decorations. Indeed, to one looking down into its clear depths, it seemed like a fairy palace. The same jelly like substance or pulp to which I have before alluded covers a large area with the various shades of light red and green. The surface yields to the tread like a cushion. It is about 2 inches in thickness, and, although seldom so tenacious as to hold together, yet it may be taken up in quite large masses, and when it becomes dry it is blown about by the wind like fragments of variegated lichens.

The above, cut from the Hayden report of 1872, and the description thereof in that of 1871, are here republished, both for their accuracy and as a datum from which to trace subsequent and future developments. This clearly proves the comparatively recent outburst of the yawning pool of hot water, in border parlance heretofore called "Hell's Half Acre," which during the past season has fully justified the name and greatly exceeded the dimensions. Although noted for the deep ultramarine blue, ever-agitated waters, so characteristic of the true geyser when not in eruption, there was neither evidence nor indications of recent eruptions until late in August, 1878. I then distinctly heard its spoutings when near Old Faithful, 6 miles distant, but arrived too late to witness them, though not its effects upon the Fire Hole River, which was so swollen as to float out some of our bridges over rivulet branches below it.

Crossing the river above the geyser and hitching my horse, with bewildering astonishment I beheld the outlet at least tripled in size, and a furious torrent of hot water escaping from the pool, which was shrouded in steam, greatly hiding its spasmodic foamings. The pool was considerably enlarged, its immediate borders swept entirely clear of all movable fragments of rock, enough of which had been hurled or forced back to form a ridge from knee to breast high at a distance of from 20 to 50 feet from the ragged edge of the yawning chasm. Perhaps no published statement of mine in reference to the Wonder Land has ever more severely tested the credulity of friends or of the public; and even General Crook and Secretary Schurz, to whom I pointed out the decreasing proofs of this eruption, seemed to receive it with annoying evidences of distrust. The volume of steam arising from this pool continued to increase until, on reaching the Lookout lower border of the valley, late in November, 1880, it appeared so great as to cause me to visit it the next day, hopeful of seeing an eruption or evidences of a recent one. This I failed to find, but not a volume of steam which then shrouded all near it, as it did the whole of the lower valley before the next morning. In order to make the Mammoth Hot Springs, 40 miles distant, that day, I started early, and with the thermometer but little above zero groped my way through this fog, which chilled to the marrow, to the Lookout Terrace, 3 miles from the Forks of the Fire Holes and 8 from the geyser, and emerged therefrom by ascending above it into a broad and brilliant scene of beauty seldom witnessed by human vision. From the foaming half-acre caldron an enormous column of steam and vapor constantly arose, at first verti

cally, then swayed by a moderate but steady southern wind northerly, increasing with the altitude, until intermingling with or forming a cloud at the proper elevation, from which a nearly imperceptible descending vapor, carried northerly, covered and loaded to pendency the southern branches of the dark pine and fir fringes to the terrace slopes and craggy cliffs of the Madison Plateau, to its great cañon beyond the Gibbon, fully 15 miles from this earthly Gehenna.

Beneath this unique cloud-awning the low and seemingly distant rays of a cold, cloudless sunrising, in struggling through this vapor-laden atmosphere, formed a variety of tints and reflections from the inimitably beautiful festoons of frost formation, while commingled with a dark

Fia. 28-Excelsior Geyser, 1881.