Wonders of the YellowstoneRichardson, James (Geologist)
History
Wonders of the Yellowstone
Richardson, James (Geologist)
Yellowstone National Park
The crater of this geyser is very beautiful, though, being but slightly
elevated above the general slope of the plateau, it might easily
be overlooked, should it not happen to play during the visit of an
examining party. There are three openings. One, a very small aperture,
emits puffs of steam, similar to the exhaust-pipe of a steam engine.
The large one in the centre, six feet across, boils violently during an
eruption, but does not throw water to a great height. The third opening
is the geyser proper. It is twelve by eighteen inches in diameter,
somewhat narrowed as it descends, and is of great depth--smooth
and straight. These cavities are all lined with delicate deposit,
beautifully enamelled, in appearance as delicate as frost-work, but
hard and strong, requiring the assistance of a hammer to detach
fragments for specimens. Soon after Colonel Barlow entered the basin he
witnessed a grand eruption of this geyser. He says:
"A roar was heard near the hill-side a hundred yards distant, and upon
rushing out in that direction we saw a huge mass of steam issuing from
a crater at the base of the hill, accompanied by a column of water
rising to a height far exceeding that of any geyser yet seen. This
grand fountain continued to play for several minutes, when, having
subsided, I approached to obtain a closer view of the aperture whence
had issued such a powerful stream. A sudden gush of steam drove me
away, following which the water was again impelled upward and upward,
far above the steam, until it seemed to have lost the controlling force
of gravity. The roar was like the sound of a tornado, but there was no
apparent effort--a steady stream, very graceful and perfectly vertical,
except as a slight breeze may have waved it to and fro. Strong and
smooth, it continued to ascend, like the stream from a powerful steam
fire-engine. We were all lost in astonishment at the sudden and
marvellous spectacle. I have no hesitancy in stating that this geyser
played to the height of over two hundred feet. It commenced at five
o'clock in the afternoon and continued twenty minutes.
"The enthusiasm of the party as they watched this wondrous display knew
no bounds. Those who were usually loud and boisterous in the exhibition
of their feelings, became subdued and simply gazed in silent awe;
while the more sober members seemed to lose their natural gravity and
manifested their delight in shouts of rapture. For myself, I remember
trying to obtain a view of the fountain from all points of the compass
at once, and was brought to a realizing sense of the difficulties
attending the execution of this desire, by discovering that I was
waiting in the torrent of hot water which was now flooding the nearly
level surface of the surrounding rock.
"After the grand column of water subsided, vast clouds of steam, were
for some time ejected from the throat of the geyser, and also from a
small rent close beside the main orifice.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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