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Trumball Journal
Index
THE WASHBURN YELLOWSTONE EXPEDITION.
NO. I.
Page 6
The immense depth of this gorge almost overcomes
the roar of the falls, and a short distance from the edge of the caņon
the sound of the waters is unheard. The general color of the caņon
is yellow, owing to the sulphureous fumes which rise from many steam-jets
near the bottom; but in places the rock is of a reddish hue, while in others
it is dazzlingly white. Days would be required to examine thoroughly and
fully appreciate the vicinity of the falls, which, in many respects, are the
most remarkable in America.
Leaving the falls the first morning in autumn, we
took the trail through the timber, in a south-west direction. We soon found
ourselves in an open, rolling country, gradually sloping down to the river.
About six miles from the falls, and a half-mile back from the river, we came
to three white hills, of a volcanic nature, thrown up entirely by deposits
from hot and boiling mineral springs, which were between and around them.
The largest was forty feet by sixty. It was perfectly quiet, and looked
like any other deep, muddy pond; its peculiarity being that, although it was
easy for any one to handle it, he who attempted any such familiarity was
sure to get scalded. The spring which attracted most attention was about
seven feet by ten, and threw whitish, hot water from eight to ten feet above
the rim of its basin. It also puffed like a steamboat, throwing off vast
quantities of steam, and much resembled the Steamboat Geyser, in Sonoma
County, California. Its rim was incrusted with sulphur, some specimens
being quite pure.
Within a space of half a mile square, at least
seventy-five different springs and steam-jets occur. The mounds, or hills,
at the bases of which are these springs, are nearly three hundred feet
high. They are covered with small holes and fissures, from which issue hot
air and steam. No vegetation of consequence grows on them, but a few clumps
of trees are scattered between the springs at their base. Many of the
craters contain a grayish, pasty-looking substance, about the consistency of
mush nearly cooked. Other springs have waters of blue, pink, yellow, and
brown tinges. One small, bubbling spring, of clear water, has an intensely
sour, acrid taste.
It is said that Indians do not go above the grand
caņon of the Yellowstone. Whether this is true I know not, but I
imagine that the unscientific savage finds little to interest him in such
places. I should rather suppose he would give them a wide berth, believing
them sacred to Satan. If a person should be cast into one of these springs,
he would be literally immersed in a lake of burning brimstone.
There being no good grass near Crater Hills, after
stopping a few hours to examine them we moved to a point on the Yellowstone,
about three miles above. Near this camp were several mineral springs, all
hot, and many of them boiling. Most of them were ordinary, bubbling,
spluttering mud-springs, but three of them were quite remarkable. Of these
the first, or lowest down the river, is a cave-spring, with an opening of
ten feet in width by six in height, in solid rock, with an almost perfect,
oval arch. The water is clear as crystal, of boiling heat, and a vitriolic
taste. As you look into the cave, it has the appearance of an opening to a
subterranean lake. A small, hot stream flows from it. The water is
continually washing its ten or twelve feet of shore, like an agitated lake.
the bright pebbles in the bottom, the clean sand, and the smooth, white,
flat stones left in regular ripples on its margin, together with the green,
mossy sides of the cave, and the musical monotones of the rippling waters,
almost lead one to think it the entrance to an enchanted lake.
A hundred yards above this spring, upon the side
of a hill, was another entirely different in character. It was really a
small volcano, throwing mud instead of lava. Intermittent thumps, like the
discharge of artillery, could be heard, at intervals of from fifteen to
thirty seconds, for the distance of a mile. At every pulsation, think,
white clouds of steam came rolling out, and mud was thrown from the crater,
gradually enlarging the mound which surrounded it. While we were watching
this spring the mud was only thrown over the rim of the crater, but from the
clay clinging to the branches of surrounding trees, especially on the upper
side of the spring, it was evidently thrown, at times, to a height of two
hundred feet. A circle, a hundred yards in diameter, was also well
bespattered.
Between the last-mentioned spring and the river is
a boiling spring, a placid pond, a deep, dry funnel, or an active geyser,
according to the time of one's visit. In the course of a day we saw it in
all its protean shapes. When in its funnel form, one would not dream that,
from the small opening in the bottom, twenty or thirty feet below, would
come a power capable of filling with water the funnel, which at the top is
thirty feet by forty, and then so agitating it that the water would be
splashed to a height of from thirty to fifty feet. If one saw it when the
waters were troubled, he would be scarcely less astonished to hear it give
one convulsive throb, and then see it quietly settle down in a single
instant to the smooth surface of a placid pool. When the waters retired we
went into the funnel, and found it rough, efflorescent, and composed of rock
and hardened sulphur.
Though very different in character from the
geysers afterward seen on the head-waters of the Madison River, and far less
grand, this one was very peculiar, and we saw nothing resembling it during
the rest of the trip.
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