234 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 



both wiud and waves subsided during the night, and both air and water 

 were perfectly calm at sunrise next morning. While getting breakfast, 

 we heard every few moments a curious sound, between a whistle and a 

 hoarse whine, whose locality and character we could not at first determine, 

 though we were inclined to refer it to water- fowl on the other side of the 

 lake. As the sun got higher, the sound increased in force, and it now 

 became evident that gusts of wind were passing through the air above 

 us, though the pines did not as yet indicate the least motion in the lower 

 atmosphere. We started before the almost daily westerly wind, of which 

 these gusts were evidently the forerunners, had began to ruffle the 

 lake. 



Grasshoppers were so scarce that we did not succeed in catching a 

 single one of the wormy trout for which the lake is famous. 



Reaching the mud-geysers about 10 o'clock, we found the principal 

 spring just ready to erupt, and so were detained only a few minutes. 



Having thus briefly inspected the wonders of the Yellowstone, we 

 turned back along the regular trail toward the geyser-basins, and got 

 to camp that night by a rather hard march of about thirty-seven miles. 

 Considering the characters of ground and timber along this trail, we 

 were satisfied that we lost nothing by leaving it on our outward trip. 



During this time, Mr. Bechler had gone, with his assistants, to examine 

 the divideto the west of the Firellole, and to locate a stream supposed to 

 exist in that direction and which had been mapped as the south fork of the 

 Madison. But no such stream exists, unless it be the short one before 

 described as forming in the north iace of the mountain, just east of 

 Tyghee Pass. The divide is high and largely covered with dense tim- 

 ber, mostly young, the old growth having been burned" off. Only vol- 

 canic rocks were found, being mostly obsidian sandstones, which are 

 very porous. Accordingly, he found but little water. Springs and pools 

 occasionally appeared in the caQons, but soon sank again. From what 

 I saw elsewhere in this neighborhood, I judge that he would probably 

 have found more open timber and more water along the spurs than he 

 did along the caiions. Hollows among and upon the spurs become par- 

 tially puddled, and so frequently hold water ; while the flow of springs, 

 constantly wearing their channels, however slightly, is quickly absorbed 

 by porous soils. At two points the party found small clusters of hot 

 springs, some of which spouted a little, but no considerable geysers. 

 The canons, running westward, finally lead out to the basin of Henry's 

 Lake, whence the party returned by our old trail through Tyghee Pass. 



Concerning the geysers, springs, and pools of the main geyser-basina 

 on Fire-Hole Fork, so much has already been written that I prepose to 

 merely note a few of the more prominent points which especially at- 

 tracted my attention, and which have to do rather with generalities than 

 with details, except in case of localities not visited by those who have pub- 

 lished descriptions. In this latter case I think it best to be pretty full, 

 in order that we may reach as far toward a complete tlescription of this 

 interesting region as is possible for those who only make brief visits to 

 it. It is to be hoped that means will be found, ere long, to locate two or 

 three persons here for an entire season, so that, by protracted detailed 

 observations, we may obtain something like an approximate idea of the 

 laws which govern the wonderful phenomena here displayed on so grand 

 a scale. 



At one point in the lower basin, near the Architectural Geyser, we 

 found masses of volcanic sandstone, perforated by numerous irregular 

 holes from a quarter inch to an inch in diameter, which had evidently 

 been dissolved out by the hot waters, in their escape to the surface. 



