CHAPTER IV.

THE GEYSERS AND PAINT POT. FOUNTAIN HOTEL, YELLOWSTONE PARK, June 23, 1892.

This morning at eight o'clock we left the Mammoth Spring, in a strongly built and comfortable wagon drawn by four horses, with eight passengers and a careful driver, and soon commenced to see the wonders of this remarkable park. The road ran near three lakes, each measuring a hundred acres or more--one green in color, one blue, and one yellow--the like of which cannot, I think, be seen anywhere else on earth. On examination, I found that the water was clear, and that the pronounced and brilliant colors came from chemical deposits on the bottom of the lakes. We did not linger long to look at these remarkable phenomena, but drove on, and were soon passing over a road made of natural glass, by the side of a great mountain of the same material. I picked up several pieces of this glass, and found that it was green in color, and looked like any other glass, while alongside the road and up the mountain we saw large masses of the same material. The only conclusion we could arrive at was, that in some prehistoric time the materials of which glass is composed must have been in juxtaposition, and were fused into their present form by a volcanic eruption. It is safe to say that nowhere else on earth is to be found a roadway made of glass.

We reached this hotel at 6 P.M., and saw near by the first of the geysers, spouting hot water fifty feet high. We made our way over a thin crust to see this geyser, so thin that it seemed as if we might break through and disappear forever, reminding me of a former experience, when walking along the edge of a volcano in Japan, a place was pointed out where two guides who had wandered from the path, broke through the crust and were lost. We passed on to examine what I consider the most extraordinary natural phenomenon to be seen on the face of the earth. It is called the Paint Pot, and is a depression of about thirty by forty feet, with walls of hardened clay three or four feet high. In this so-called pot are half a dozen or more cones, much like inverted flower pots, about six inches in diameter at the top, and two or three feet high. From the centres of these there are constantly flowing streams of hot clay, each stream of a different color, varying from pure white to brown. In other parts of the big pot the soft clay was coming slowly up from centres and overflowing, forming figures like flowers, very beautiful to look at. The soldier who escorted us was very polite, but would not permit us to carry away a bit of the clay, though there were tens of thousands of tons lying about. We could see, near by and at a distance, several other geysers, spouting water fifty or more feet high, and we learned from the guide books that there are no less than ten or twelve thousand boiling springs and geysers within the reservation, which is sixty-five miles long by fifty-three wide, containing about three thousand four hundred and seventy-five square miles. We were informed that after sunset a bear came regularly, back of the hotel, to regale himself on the refuse thrown from the kitchen, and I went to see him; but the mosquitoes were very thick, and proved such an intolerable nuisance that I was obliged to go away without getting a look at the beast.