e rapidity, causing a
general stampede among our company, who all moved around to the windward
side of the geyser. When the water had risen within about twenty-five
feet of the surface, it became stationary, and we returned to look down
upon the foaming water, which occasionally emitted hot jets nearly to
the mouth of the orifice. As if tired of this sport the water began to
ascend at the rate of five feet in a second, and when near the top it
was expelled with terrific momentum in a column the full size of the
immense aperture to a height of sixty feet. The column remained at this
height for the space of about a minute, when from the apex of this vast
aqueous mass five lesser jets or round columns of water varying in size
from six to fifteen inches in diameter shot up into the atmosphere to
the amazing height of two hundred and fifty feet. This was without
exception the most magnificent phenomenon I ever beheld. We were
standing on the side of the geyser exposed to the sun, whose sparkling
rays filled the ponderous column with what appeared to be the clippings
of a thousand rainbows. These prismatic illusions disappeared, only to
be succeeded by myriads of others which continually fluttered and
sparkled through the spray during the twenty minutes the eruption
lasted. These lesser jets, thrown so much higher than the main column
and shooting through it, doubtless proceed from auxiliary pipes leading
into the principal orifice near the bottom, where the explosive force is
greater. The minute globules into which the spent column was diffused
when falling sparkled like a shower of diamonds, and around every shadow
produced by the column of steam hiding the sun was the halo so often
represented in paintings as encircling the head of the Savior We
unhesitatingly agreed that this was the greatest wonder of our trip.

Mr. Hedges and I forded the Firehole river a short distance below our
camp. The current, as it dashed over the boulders, was swift, and,
taking off our boots and stockings, we selected for our place of
crossing what seemed to be a smooth rock surface in the bottom of the
stream, extending from shore to shore. When I reached the middle of the
stream I paused a moment and turned around to speak to Mr. Hedges, who
was about entering the stream, when I discovered from the sensation of
warmth under my feet that I was standing upon an incrustation formed
over a hot spring that had its vent in the bed of the stream. I
e