he geyser lapses and dies, the people turn away to
the Inn and luncheon. Under the surface, again the waters gather and
boil in preparation for the next eruption. The interval till then will
depend upon the amount of water which reaches the deep pocket, the size
of the pocket, and the length and shape of the vent-hole. If conditions
permit the upward escape of steam as fast as it makes in the pocket, we
have a hot spring. If the steam makes faster than it can escape, we have
a geyser.

[Illustration: _From a photograph by Haynes_

THE EXCELSIOR GEYSER WHICH BLEW OUT IN 1888; YELLOWSTONE]

[Illustration: _From a photograph by Haynes_

ONE OF THE TERRACES AT MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS; YELLOWSTONE]

III

So interesting are the geysers and their kin that, with their splendid
wilderness setting, other glories seem superfluous. I have had my
moments of impatience with the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone for being
in the Yellowstone. Together, the canyon and the geysers are almost too
much for one place, even perhaps for one visit. One can only hold so
much, even of beauty, at once. Spectacles of this quality and quantity
need assimilation, and assimilation requires time. Nevertheless, once
enter into sympathetic relations with the canyon, once find its heart
and penetrate its secret, and the tables are quickly turned. Strangely,
it now becomes quite easy to view with comparative coolness the claims
of mere hot-water wonders.

The canyon cannot be considered apart from its river any more than a
geyser apart from its environment of hot spring and basin, and any
consideration of the Yellowstone River begins with its lake. As compared
with others of scenic celebrity, Yellowstone Lake is unremarkable. Its
shores are so low and the mountains of its southern border so flat and
unsuggestive that it curiously gives the impression of surface
altitude--curiously because it actually has the altitude; its surface is
more than seven thousand seven hundred feet above tide. If I have the
advertisement right, it is the highest water in the world that floats a
line of steamboats.

The lake is large, twenty miles north and south by fifteen miles east
and west; it is irregular with deep indentations. It is heavily wooded
to the water's edge. All its entering streams are small except the
Yellowstone River, which, from its source in the Absarokas just south of
the park boundary, enters the Southeast Arm through the lowland
wilderness home of