ulphur. When this
crust is penetrated, the boiling water may be seen underneath. The rocks
in the neighborhood of these fountains are all corroded by the action of
the sulphurous vapors. Nevertheless, within a distance of not more than
50 feet from them, trees grow without injury to their health.

Few of these fountains, however, are regular geysers, most of them
discharging only steam. From the Steamboat Geyser this ascends to a
height of from 50 to 100 feet, with a roar like that of the escape
from a steamboat boiler. Associated with the geysers are numerous hot
springs, some clear, some turbid, and variously impregnated with
iron, sulphur or alum. In Nevada the Steamboat Springs, as they are
designated, exist in Washoe Valley, east of the Virginian range. They
come nearer in character to the Yellowstone geysers, their waters
depositing true geyserite, or silicious concretions. The Volcano
Springs, in Lauder County, are also true geysers, though of small
importance. The ground here is so thickly perforated by holes from which
steam escapes that it looks like a cullender.

THE YELLOWSTONE GEYSERS

The most remarkable geyser country in the world, alike for the size and
the number of its spouting fountains, is the Yellowstone region in the
northwest part of the Territory of Wyoming, in the United States, which,
by a special act of Congress, has been reserved as the Yellowstone
National Park, exempt from settlement, purchase or preemption. Here
nearly every form of geyser and unintermittent hot spring occurs,
with deposits of various kinds, silicious, calcareous, etc. Of the
hot springs, Dr. Peale enumerates 2,195, and considers that within the
limits of the park--which is about 54 miles by 62 miles, and includes
3,312 square miles--as many as 3,000 actually exist. The same geologist
notes the existence of 71 geysers in the area mentioned, though some
of the number are only inferred to be spouting springs from the form of
their basins and the character of the surrounding deposits. Of this
vast collection of still and eruptive springs, between which there seems
every gradation, those which do not send water into the air are, owing
to the magnificent cascades which they form, often quite as remarkable
as those which take the shape of geysers. The more striking of the
latter may, however, be briefly mentioned.

In the Gibbon Basin is a geyser of late origin. In 1878 this consisted
of two steam holes, roaring on the s