r40 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 1. 



may be the color of a rose, or it may be green 

 or blue, or white as whitewash. Some of the 

 mud geysers make a figixre every now and 

 then that is strikingly like a calla lily. You 

 see, if the bubble of steam shoots ofF at an 

 angle, instead of going straight up, we have a 

 blossom with a point at one side like the calla 

 lily; and this remains until another bubble of 

 steam makes another blossom of some kind. 

 Sometimes it is a very pretty morning-glory, 

 color and all. 



You had better confine your meanderings to 

 where you see people have been walking. If 

 you do not, you may get into mud that is 

 more objectionable than any thing you ever 

 had any experience with before. At various 

 points through the canyon we meet with these 

 " paint pots," or mud springs; but the descrip- 

 ti6n I have given will answer for most of 

 them. 



One of the most appalling sights in the way 

 of geysers or hot springs is Excelsior Geyser. 



,^ 



MUSHROOM SPRING, FOUNTAIN BASIN. 



It is a great well, or abyss, something like 300 

 feet long and 200 feet wide. The water is of 

 a deep blue, boiling all the time. The surface 

 is 1.5 or 20 feet below the ground ; and the 

 walls, almost clear around it, are perpendicu- 

 lar or hollowed out under the edge, so it seems 

 likely the brink may at any time break off 

 and fall in. This great geyser is so full of 

 steam that a good deal of the time you can 

 not get a glimpse of the surface of the water. 

 Once in a while, however, the wind blows the 

 steam off to one side. Somebody cautioned 

 me, as I was walking pretty close to the edge 

 of this frightful chasm. As the ground looked 

 hard and firm, however, I did not feel much 

 troubled about it until the wind blew the 

 steam away, and I looked back to where I 

 had just been standing, and saw the earth had 

 been washed out underneath, like a cave; and 

 the soil looked so loose and sandy under that 

 apparently firm ground that it seems as if 

 one's weight might cause it to crumble off. 

 Suppose a crowd of people should go up to 



the brink, and be precipitated into this terri- 

 ble lake of boiling, steaming water. This 

 place has been known as Hell's Half Acre; 

 and it seemed to me as though the govern- 

 ment ought to put up a fence around this 

 dangerous place, with notice to visitors to 

 beware. We are told this has, in times past, 

 been subject to eruptions where a great col- 

 umn of water toward fifty or more feet across 

 has been hurled hundreds of feet high. Tur- 

 quoise Spring is a silent pool about 100 feet in 

 diameter. It is so named on account of the 

 exquisite color of the water, and the brilliant 

 hues of the sides and bottom which are so 

 plainly visible. Prismatic Lake is said to be 

 the largest of the brilliant springs, being from 

 .300 to 400 feet in diameter. In the center the 

 water seems to be blue, turning to green 

 toward the margin, while some other portions 

 of it seem to be yellow. I presume this is 

 caused somewhat by the distance or depth of 

 the water through which you look. In addi- 

 tion to this the sides 

 and bottom are shaded 

 with most tantalizing 

 colors. May be "tan- 

 talizing" is not exact- 

 ly the word, but it con- 

 veys the meaning bet- 

 ter than any other word 

 I know. The clouds 

 of steam hinder one 

 from getting a full 

 glimpse of its wonder- 

 ful beauty, unless you 

 get the sun at just the 

 right angle, and wait 

 quite a time for the 

 steam to be wafted 

 away. 



Since writing my de- 

 scription of the terraces 

 at Mammoth Springs, 

 in our last issue, I have 

 secured a cut (see pre- 

 ceding page) that in 

 many respects is quite 

 an improvement over 

 the one on page 699 of last issue. It shows 

 very plainly the way in which the walls 

 around these separate pools are filled up by 

 the mineral deposit. The spring probably 

 bursts out very near the foot of the hills in 

 the background; then as the water overflows 

 each pool in succession it forms the beautiful 

 scalloped-edge basin. Most of this formation 

 is hard enough so you can walk around by 

 stepping on the edges of the basin. Be care- 

 ful, however, that you do not slip off into the 

 boiling water. Steam is constantly ascending 

 from most of these pools, and sometimes it 

 obstructs the view; but when a gentle breeze 

 wafts away the vapor, and permits the sun- 

 shine to go away down into its shining depths 

 of crystal water, you have a glimpse that is 

 wonderfully entrancing. While many of the 

 springs are bubbling and boiling, there are 

 others that are so quiet one can hardly believe 

 the surface is not a beautifully polished mir- 

 ror. I give you a glimpse of one of these 

 quiet springs. See cut above. Now, this pic- 



