at these seeming irregularities depend on
the varying supplies of water at different times of the year.

THE MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS

The marvellous phenomena of the Yellowstone region are not confined
to geyser action, hot springs of steady flow being, as above stated,
exceedingly numerous. Of these the most striking are those known as the
Mammoth Hot Springs, whose waters find their way through underground
passages, finally flowing from an opening as the "Boiling River," which
empties into the Gardiner River.

These springs are marvels of beauty. Their terraced bowls, adorned with
delicate fret-work, are among the finest specimens of Nature's handiwork
in the world, and the colored waters themselves are startling in their
brilliancy. Red, pink, black, canary, green, saffron, blue, chocolate,
and all their intermediate gradations are found here in exquisite
harmony. The springs rise in terraces of various heights and widths,
having intermingled with their delicate shades chalk-like cliffs, soft
and crumbly, these latter being the remains of springs from which the
life and beauty have departed. The great spring is the largest in the
country, the water flowing through three openings into a basin forty
feet long by twenty-five feet wide. From this the hot mineral waters
drip over into lower basins, of gracefully curved and scalloped outline,
the minerals deposited on the lips of the basin forming stalagmites of
variegated hue, yielding a brilliant and beautiful effect. The terraced
basins bear a close resemblance to the former New Zealand pink and white
terraces, and since the annihilation of the latter are the most charming
examples in existence of this rare form of Nature's artistic handiwork.

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