me twelve or fifteen rods from
this spring are two other springs from ten to twelve feet in diameter.
Near by is a hot (not boiling) spring of sulphur, fifteen to eighteen
feet in diameter, too hot to bathe in. From these we passed over the
timbered hill at the base of which these springs are situated. In the
timber along the brow of the hill and near its summit, and immediately
under the living trees, the hot sulphur vapor and steam issue from
several fissures or craters, showing that the hottest fires are raging
at some point beneath the surface crust, which in a great many places
gives forth a hollow sound as we pass over it. Through a little coulee
on the other side of the hill runs a small stream of greenish water,
which issues from a small cavern, the mouth of which is about five feet
high and the same dimension in width. From the mouth, the roof of the
cavern descends at an angle of about fifteen degrees, till at the
distance of twenty feet from the entrance it joins the surface of the
water. The bottom of the cavern under the water seems to descend at
about the same angle, but as the water is in constant ebullition, we
cannot determine this fact accurately. The water is thrown out in
regular spasmodic jets, the pulsations occurring once in ten or twelve
seconds. The sides and mouth of this cavern are covered with a dark
green deposit, some of which we have taken with us for analysis. About
two hundred yards farther on is another geyser, the flow of which occurs
about every six hours, and when the crater is full the diameter of the
surface is about fourteen feet, the sides of the crater being of an
irregular funnelshape, and descending at an angle of about forty-five
degrees. At the lowest point at which we saw the water it was about
seven feet in diameter on the surface. One or another of our party
watched the gradual rise of the water for four or five hours. The
boiling commenced when the water had risen half way to the surface,
occasionally breaking forth with great violence. When the water had
reached its full height in the basin, the stream was thrown up with
great force to a height of from twenty to thirty feet, the column being
from seven to ten feet in diameter at the midway height of the column,
from bottom to top. The water was of a dark lead color, and those
portions of the sides of the crater that were overflowed and then
exposed by the rise and fall of the water were covered with stalagmites
formed by