1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



739 



is another little circumstance I might men- 

 tion. The carriage containing the friends 

 who camped with us the evening before over- 

 hauled me, and urged me to occupy the vacant 

 seat and go along with them. There were 

 some very bright, entertaining ladies in the 

 crowd, and they too intimated my presence 

 would be agreeeble, and — why, you see when 

 one sees these wonderful things all alone by 

 himself he wants somebody to talk to. Well, 

 you will have to picture me for the next three 

 or four days in company with a crowd of nice 

 people, and having a very good time. 



A little further on we came to the first real 

 geyser, called Constant. This little geyser 

 goes off every minute, throwing jets of water 

 forty feet into the air. As most of the water 

 runs right back into the crater, where it came 

 out, very little runs away. The Black Growler, 

 a little further on, claimed my attention to 

 such an extent that our party got clear out of 

 sight. This geyser throws but very little 



Nobody can tell when the Monarch will 

 " go off," for it is anywhere from three or four 

 to twelve hours. The crater consists of two 

 oval-shaped wells. When it is quiet you can 

 look down and see the steam coming up for 

 perhaps a distance of fifty feet down. It plays 

 with a series of explosions. I will tell you 

 how I know. I ventured nearer than any of 

 the rest of the party, and was peering down 

 into its awful depths. Several of the party 

 called out to me, saying I had better look out. 

 I thought I heard an unusual disturbance 

 down there, and wanted to see how it com- 

 menced. The driver said we might have to 

 wait all day, and guessed we had better go on. 

 I was standing right where that person is, of 

 whom you can just get a glimpse through the 

 steam. Before I had really got to a safe dis- 

 tance I heard a tremendous noise, and the 

 water came flying out about as quick as if 

 somebody had touched off a cannon down in 

 the bottom of the well. Before the first charge 



JUPITER TERRACE, MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS. 



water — just enough, in fact, to lay the dust 

 nicely in the road that runs close to it ; but it 

 throws out two jets of steam with such a roar 

 that you can not hear anybody talk. It comes 

 with puffs and brief explosions that make it 

 all the more frightful A little to the north of 

 it is one called Hurricane ; and those two 

 together are enough to scare anybody, let 

 alone the horses to the coach ; but they seem 

 to have become accustomed to it by their 

 weekly trips close to the puffing .steam. There 

 is steam enough here to run a good-sized 

 engine, without any trouble. The way it 

 threw up a stick I laid across the crater would 

 look as if there were pressure enough. Em- 

 erald Pool is a handsome emerald-tinted 

 spring, 40x.50 feet in size. Its walls are orna- 

 mented with beautiful sulphur-colored coral. 

 The Monarch Geyser, of which I give a cut 

 on the preceding page, is the largest in Norris 

 Basin. 



had got well started, off went another, send- 

 ing a volley of clouds of boiling water some- 

 thing like 100 feet high. There were great 

 quantities of drops of water shining in the 

 sun, like drops of rain; but as these are boil- 

 ing hot they go up and up until they turn into 

 steam, and so do not come down at all. But 

 chunks of water, if I may use the term, go up 

 that do come down. 



A little further we get our first glimpse of 

 the Paint Pots. In these the mud is mixed 

 up with the boiling water; and it is about the 

 smoothest and most plastic mud you ever saw 

 or heard of. Somebody said it was no wonder 

 it was nice mortar, for Nature had been 

 working it over and over for perhaps — how 

 long do you suppose? Why, perhaps ten 

 thousand years. Each puff of steam throws 

 up a thick mud that settles back in the form 

 of a ring. Then another one follows, and you 

 have something like a full-blown rose. It 



