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Washburn
Report Index
YELLOWSTONE EXPEDITION OF 1870
Page 24
a heavy snow-storm set in, which continued at
intervals throughout the next day.
Twenty-second day -- September 12. -- To-day
parties wen out in couples on the search. Messrs. Smith and Trumbull
followed the lake shore around the head of the promontory to within sight of
our previous camp. They returned in the evening and reported having seen
human footsteps in the sands of the beach. Mr. Smith was positive he saw
several Indians on foot, who retreated into the woods on being approached.
They were probably white men, as a man was met in the neighborhood a few
days afterward who stated that he belonged to a small party in the vicinity.
In the middle of this promontory is one lake of considerable size, and at a
high elevation above that of the Yellowstone. Messrs. Washburn and Langford
took a southerly direction toward the base of the Yellow Mountain, for a
distance of eleven miles. They saw from the divide the lake from which Snake
River issues, also a small lake at an elevation of 800 feet above it. Beyond
this divide they became entangled in an immense swampy brimstone basin,
miles in extent, abounding in sulphur springs, small geysers, and steam
jets. The ground was covered with tufa, or calcareous deposits in a thin
scale, overlying hot white mud. Mr. Langford's horse broke through several
times, coming back plastered with the white substance and badly scalded.
They were unable to penetrate to the lake on account of the instability of
the footing.
Twenty-third day September 13. -- The snowy
weather continued with intervals of hail and rain; large fires were kept up,
and the search continued. I rode around the head of the lake to the steam
jets visible from camp; this was the largest system we had yet seen, located
at the extreme point of the most westerly arm of the lake, and on a gentle
slope, reaching along the shore for a mile, and extending back into the
woods for the same distance; this system embraced every variety of hot water
and mud springs seen thus far on the route, with many other heretofore
unseen. Four hundred yard from the lake shore is a basin of mud having a
bright pink color; this is a system of itself, being 70 feet in diameter,
and projecting thick mud through small craters of a conical shape around the
edge of the basin, while the center is one seething mass. The deposit
speedily hardens into a firm, laminated clay stone, of beautiful texture,
though the brilliant pink color fades to a chalky white. Near and around
this basin are a dozen springs, from 6 to 25 feet across, boiling muddy
water of paint-like consistency, in colors varying from a pure white to a
dark yellow; them come several flowing springs, from 10 to 50 feet in
diameter, of clear, hot water, the basins and channels of which were lined
with deposits of red, green, yellow, and black, giving them an appearance of
gorgeous splendor; these deposits were too friable to preserve, crumbling at
the touch. The bright colors were on the surface of the rock only, not
extending to it interior. Below these were several large craters of bluish
water impregnated with sulphate of copper; these boiled to the height of two
feet in the center and flowed large streams of water; their rims were raised
a few inches, in a delicate rocky margin of a fringe-like appearance,
deposited from the water. Beyond these are two lakes of purple water, hot,
but not boiling; these give deposits of great delicacy of coloring. Near by
are two more bluestone springs, the largest we have yet seen; one, 30 by 40
feet and of temperature 173, flows a stream into the other one about 70 feet
distant, and six feet lower; this latter spring is 40 by 75 feet,
temperature 183; a stream of 100 inches of water flows from it. The craters
of these springs are of calcareous stalagmite, and lined with
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