698 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 15. 



It will be remembered that I gave a view of 

 his portable house-apiary— a sort of building 

 that can be knocked down, laid on an ordinary 

 wagon in the flat, moved to another location, 

 and set up for the bees again. A view of this 

 house-apiary is given on page 807, 1897; and 

 that our friends may recall what manner of 

 man he was, I take pleasure in presenting 

 to you a picture which we gave in these 

 columns nearly a year ago. Many of our 

 friends will remember him as being at the 

 Buffalo convention. It was Niver at this con- 

 vention who told me that I nmst come and see 

 his brother-in-law. He would not take no for 

 an answer — I had just go f to go. Mr. Morton 

 mildly expressed his request, but was not quite 

 so emphatic as his brother-in-law, who insist- 

 ed that Morton could show me many valuable 

 kinks in bee-keeping. Our own columns of 

 the last year or so proved the correctness of 

 Mr. Niver's opinion. 



NOTES OF TRAVLL 



,i BY A. I. ROOT. 



„gS^if- 



While passing through Gardiner Canyon on 

 my wheel, away up on the pinnacle of a rock 

 I saw a huge bird standing. From the pieces 

 of sticks tiiat projected from the point of the 

 rock I guessed the bird had a nest there, and 

 surmised it might be an American eagle. I 

 was afterward told that it was Eagle Nest 

 Rock, and that the eagle raises one or more 

 broods there every season regularl}-. We give 

 a cut of it below. 



EAGLE NEST ROCK, GARDINER CANYON. 



Some of the cliff's near this rock are fully 

 1500 feet above the roadway — more than a 

 quarter of a mile straight up. Just before 

 reaching Mammoth Springs, in the twilight I 

 saw a great white mountain. Yes, it was 



almost ghostly white; and then I heard a rush 

 of many waters. Said I to myself, " Is it pos- 

 sible that these springs have built up such a 

 hill as that ? " And no wonder; for it is from 

 1000 to 1200 feet high, and covers acres in 

 extent. We know this mountain was built 

 up by the hot springs, because close by the 

 hotel there is a pillar called Liberty Cap. 

 This is 52 feet high and 20 feet in diameter, 

 and in the top there is an orifice through which 

 the water used to boil out. There is some- 

 thing exceedingly funny about the way the 

 water builds up these structures. In this 

 special locality near the Mammoth Hot 

 Springs the deposition is principally carbonate 

 of lime; and where the spring happens to run 

 just fast enough, and not too fast to favor 

 building up a mound, the deposit under the 

 most favorable circumstances will be a six- 

 teenth of an inch' in four days. You see, if 

 the water came in faster it would break through 

 and run down into the river; if it comes just 

 fast enough and no more, it builds up straight 

 like Liberty Cap. We give you a view on 

 next page illustrating the way in which Mi- 

 nerva Terrace and other terraces were built up. 

 The hot water, charged with the carbonate 

 of lime, evidently, ages ago, came out down 

 by the river. Then when it ran over the sides 

 of the basin, the mineral was deposited, rais- 

 ing the walls. This made it flow over at some 

 other point until this point was raised in a 

 like manner, and so it kept working clear 

 around on all sides of the pool. Sometimes, 

 however, when the flow was sufficiently large, 

 it would flow through in one spot until it 

 formed another pool lower down. The grad- 

 ual tendency was to keep on raising the walls 

 and making the surface of the spring move 

 gradually up. In some places this dep- 

 osition is soft, so it shows your foot- 

 prints. In others it is as hard as flint. 

 Sometimes there will be a beautiful 

 fretwork something like coral that 

 looks as if it would be crushed if you 

 touch it. To your surprise, however, 

 you find it bears your weight without 

 yielding even enough to show where 

 you set your foot. Now, remember 

 we have these beautiful spots carved 

 by Nature's continual toil. They are 

 very pretty indeed. When formed of 

 salts of lime they are snow-white. No 

 egg-shell ever equaled in whiteness 

 and delicacy this handiwork. But Na- 

 ture evidently seems to say, "Now, 

 this is not enough to please the chil- 

 dren of men, and so I will show them 

 some of my skill in coloring." A great 

 deal of this coloring is of yellowish 

 tint resembling sulphur ; but occa- 

 sionally it shades off into the most 

 brilliant orange. Then we have all 

 shades of purple and blue. But this is 

 not all. The water, which is almost 

 as transparent as the air on a clear 

 day, is often tinged with the most brilliant 

 hues, and hence the names, Turquoise Pool, 

 Prismatic Lake, etc. A great many of the 

 places are named on account of the tints; for 

 instance. Orange Geyser, Angel Terrace, etc. 



