VI The Geysers of the Yellowstone 167 



To His Daughter. 



' Rawlings Springs, 

 'Wyoming, 10th October 1879. 



' We only reached the railroad last night after a 

 most toilsome journey of nearly a thousand miles, 

 principally on horseback ; and very glad I am to 

 get a few days' quiet, the first I have had for two 

 months, and the last I am likely to have for some 

 time, for soon, I suppose, we shall be off again, away 

 to the mountains, now covered with snow and ice, to 

 sleep in buffalo robes and endure all manner of 

 hardships. We saw the geysers, but they are so 

 very marvellous that it is hard to describe them. 

 Imagine a number of beautiful steps made of the 

 hard stuff deposited by the hot water as it cools, 

 most of them of a rich creamy white, and varying 

 from one inch to six feet in height ; these leading 

 up to a cone of the same stuff with a hole in the 

 centre, out of which the water and steam rush when 

 an eruption takes place. These steps are not flat 

 on the top, but have rims around their edges which 

 keep in the lovely green or blue water in pools, 

 sometimes shallow, sometimes deep. The water is 

 always boiling inside, and the steam always floating 

 out of the big central hole, but when an eruption is 

 going to take place it carries on worse than ever, with 

 such growlings and groanings, and bouncings and 

 roarings, that you can hear it miles away. These 

 go on getting louder and louder, and the water rises 



