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Washburn
Report Index
YELLOWSTONE EXPEDITION OF 1870
Page 30
stream, coming in from the south, are swampy flats,
from which many partially submerged craters project. These boil violently
and flow quantities of hot water, but do not throw jets. Near the mouth of
the stream, and on the west side, is a lake of bluestone water, 100 feet in
diameter, with steam evolving from its waters, which flow over a low rim in
every direction down the slopes depositing a yellow bed, which is now many
feet in thickness. Below this, on the margin of the stream, is a spring 30
feet in diameter, boiling with great fury, and flowing a large stream into
the creek. On the opposite side, at a distance of fifty yards, a fissure in
the strata becomes visible, six feet in width and of unknown depth. It is
bridged in most places with rock, but has frequent steam vents, and runs a
large stream of hot water from west to east with a rapid movement. This
stream can be traced for a distance of three hundred yards, the rush of its
subterranean waters being distinctly audible from under ground. In the angle
of the woods at the mouth of the creek are several large bluestone springs,
some flowing, others quiescent. Whole trees fallen in the craters of these
are incrusted with a white, calcareous deposit, and gradually turn to stone;
leaves, pine cones, grasshoppers, and twigs, are also thus incrusted in the
most delicate manner. In these springs are calcareous deposits in the shape
of mushrooms, with tops spreading out at the surface of the water. These are
often fifteen feet in diameter, and supported by stems ten feet high and two
feet thick, all of solid rock. There are two cones on the opposite bank, 40
to 50 feet in height, with small springs in their summits. The space in the
angle between the streams is partially filled with a slimy marsh. Along both
banks of the Firehole River are the greatest of the geysers. Our camp was a
few hundred yards below the first crater described, and the most beautiful
of them all. Near the bank of the river, and a half a mile below camp, rose
on the farther margin of a marshy lake the Castle Crater, the largest
formation in the valley. The calcareous knoll on which it stands is 40 feet
in height, and covers several acres. The crater is built up from its center,
with irregular walls of spherical nodules, in forms of wondrous beauty, to a
castellated turret, 40 feet in height and 200 feet in circumference at the
base. The outer rim, at its summit, is formed in embrasures between large
nodules of rock, of the tint of ashes of roses, and in the center is a
crater three feet in diameter, bordered and lined with a frost-work of
saffron. From a distance it strongly resembles an old feudal tower partially
in ruins. This great crater is continually pouring forth steam, the
condensation of which keeps the outside walls constantly wet and dripping.
The deposit is silver-gray in color, and the structure is wonderful in its
massiveness, completion, and exquisite tracery of outline. At the base of
the turret lies a large pine log, covered with a nodular and brilliant
incrustation to the depth of several inches. The wood of this log is also
petrified. The waters of this geyser have burst out in a new place, near the
foot of the old crater, flowing a large stream, boiling violently, and
diminishing the action of the great vent, yet we saw the latter on one
occasion throw water to the perpendicular height of 60 feet, with the escape
of heavy volumes of steam. It had doubtless been, when intact, the greatest
fountain of them all. Near by, and on the same hillock, is a bluestone
spring, with an indented marginal basin, 25 feet in diameter; this stands
level-full. Its interior lining is of a silver tint, and the water in its
perpendicular shaft appears to be of unfathomable depth.
A few hundred yards farther down the stream is a
crater of flinty rock, in shape resembling a huge shattered horn, broken off
half way
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Page 31
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