YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK 6389 YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK 



kept up by the annual addition of new stock 

 by the United States Fish Commission. Fish- 

 ing is allowed under government regulations 

 during a part of the year. Brook, lake and 

 Rocky Mountain trout are the varieties caught. 



Wonders of the Park. No other place in the 

 world of equal area contains as many natural 

 wonders as Yellowstone National Park. Gey- 

 sers, hot springs, cold and sparkling lakes and 

 rs, deep gorges, stupendous cataracts and a 

 canyon whose beauty and grandeur are beyond 

 Hiate description, are all found within this 

 .small area. 



Geysers. There are five geyser areas or 

 basins in the park. Three of these the Norris 

 Geyser Basin, the Lower Geyser Basin and the 

 Upper Geyser Basin are along the route usu- 

 ally taken by tourists. The other basins con- 

 tain but few geysers, and they are compara- 

 tively unimportant. The eruption of a geyser 

 is explained in the article GEYSER, but the 

 grouping of these intermittent fountains of 

 boiling water in certain small areas seems 

 strange to the visitor who has not made a 

 study of volcanic phenomena. These basins 

 are the spots where the heated rocks of the 

 interior cone are nearest the surface. As a dis- 

 tinguished traveler has aptly put it, "They are 

 tin- trapdoors in a volcanic stage through which 

 the fiery actors in the tragedy of Nature, which 

 is here enacted, come upon the scene." 



There are over sixty active geysers in the 

 park, the largest number in any geyser region 

 in the world. In size and volume they vary 

 widely, the smallest being tiny fountains send- 

 ing at frequent intervals a small jet of water 

 to the height of four or five feet; the largest is 

 the Giant, which throws a column of water five 

 feet in diameter to the height of 250 feet and 

 sustains the flow for an hour and a half. The 

 Upper Basin is a valley about one and a half 

 miles long and one-half mile broad. It is 

 drained by the Firehole River, along whose 

 banks the largest geysers are situated. Within 

 tin- basin are thirty geysers. 



Old Faithful, so named because of th> 

 l.mty of its eruptions, is the most widely known 

 of all the geysers, though several are larger. 

 Since its discovery in 1871, summer and winter 

 this geyser has never failed to play at intervals 

 of seventy minutes, sending up a silvery cas- 

 cade to the height of 150 feet. The display 

 continues for seven to eight minutes, and dur- 

 ing tin-; time the geyser pours forth 1,500.000 

 gallons of water. We get some idea of the 

 magnitude of the forces in operation here v, 



we learn that Old Faithful alone discharges 

 enough water to supply a city of 300,000 in- 

 habitants. The other geysers of special interest 

 are the Beehive, the Castle, the Grotto, the 

 Riverside and the Giant. Their periods of 

 eruption vary from a few hours to six or ten 

 days, so many tourists pass through the park 

 without seeing them in action. In general, the 

 larger the geyser the longer the period between 

 eruptions. 



Geyser waters hold silica in solution, and at 

 each eruption a minute quantity of the silica 

 is deposited on the walls of the crater by 

 evaporation of the water. In this way, during 

 untold ages, the geysers have been building up 

 around their openings mounds of indescribable 

 beauty. The Beehive, the Castle and the 

 Grotto take their names from the form of their 

 respective craters, and the crater of the Oblong 

 displays a combination of delicate tints that 

 none but the Great Artist could ever paint. 



Hot Springs. There are about 4,000 hot 

 springs within the boundaries of the park, and 

 the floors of the geyser basins are covered with 

 them. Their temperature varies from 60 to 

 175. Many of them boil, and to the casual 

 observer appear to have the temperature of 

 boiling water. Most of the boiling, however, is 

 due to the escape of gas. 



Mammoth Hot Springs, five miles from Gar- 

 diner, are by far the most famous of all these 

 springs. The water holds limestone in solu- 

 tion, and as it cools the limestone is solidi- 

 fied and deposited on the sides of the crater 

 over which the water flows. Thus during tin- 

 ages of their existence these springs li 

 up a series of terraces which form a small 

 mountain, covering an area of 250 acres and 

 having an altitude oi 350 feet. The terraces 

 are objects of rare beauty, because of their 

 delicate structure and variety of color. Some 

 are bright yellow, others are brown, and others 

 are of a terro-cotta hue; those over winch the 

 water has ceased to flow are white. As one 

 gazes upward from the foot of these terraces 

 they look like beautiful cascades of color. The 

 water is remarkably clear, and the reflection 

 from the bottom of the spring gives it a dh- 

 cate blue tint. 



v of the hot springs in the geyser basins 

 arc of interest because of their beautiful color- 

 ing, which, strange as it may seem, is caused 

 by the reflection of lipht from the crater, for 

 the water in nil i> n m.nkahlc for its clearness. 

 Prismatic Lake, bet\\< < n the Upper and L< 

 basins, is a pond of boiling water from whose 



