Wonders of the YellowstoneRichardson, James (Geologist)
History
Wonders of the Yellowstone
Richardson, James (Geologist)
Yellowstone National Park
"It seems to have broken out close by the river, and 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 twenty to thirty feet high, showing the
laminæ of deposition perfectly. The water is intensely agitated all
the time, boiling like a caldron, from which a vast column of steam
is ever rising, 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 the silicious 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 marvellous 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 studies 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 funnel-shaped spring, twenty 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 two 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."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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