1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



809 



finally discovered a beautiful little spring 

 away up among the hills — the source of the 

 little stream. 



While taking dinner we heard numerous 

 reports from travelers and others, to the effect 

 that Mud Volcano was on a " rampage;" in 

 fact, it was belching forth to such an extent, 

 and shaking all the earth around, that it was 

 said travelers almost hesitated to venture by 

 on the road. About 2 o'clock we reached the 

 spot. Quite a crowd for that remote region 

 was gathered about the puffing monster. In 

 the side of a hill near the roadway there was 

 a great pit, perhaps fifty or sixty feet deep. 

 The pit was so much filled with steam, how- 

 ever, that it was only occasionally one could 

 look down into its awful depihs. Every now 

 and then the steam seemed to gather force to 

 throw out great blocks of mud that seemed 

 constantly settling back again into the crater. 

 Sometimes the mud seemed to have ihe upper 

 hand, and the crater was closed or choked up; 

 but by and by, with a great upheaval, out 

 would come chunks of mud, some of them 

 about the size of a common cook- stove, which 

 would be belched forth away up into the tree- 

 tops. Then the spectators would have to 

 dodge, for these chunks of nnid were boiling 

 hot, and would have scalded as well as soiled. 

 There was a pathway up along one side of ihe 

 pit; but to get on the other side, where the 

 wind blew the steam away, we had to cross 

 the highest point of the crater. A good many, 

 in their hurry to see the sight, would take a 

 short cut near the brink, and it occurred to 

 me it would be nothing at all strange if that 

 soft earth where people were constantly 

 tramping should cave in and slide down into 

 that awful crater. There was something won- 

 derfully fascinating about the operations down 

 in the boiling pit. At every explosion the 

 ground would shake so as to make the trees 

 fairly quiver where we were standing. I got 

 hold of a little shrub, and was peering over 

 into the abyss. While I looked, a portion of 

 the side-hill on the lower side started to move 

 and slide down into the crater. Finally, down 

 it went, and the breathing orifice of the mon- 

 ster was shut up with mud. Then the steam 

 slowly gathered strength and volume, and 

 "then out the mud came with a terrific explo- 

 sion, only to slide back after a while and 

 repeat the program. I heard the women 

 scream to us to come away; and just after the 

 last explosion I looked up and caught sight of 

 the face of my good friend Mrs. Penwell. 

 She was as while as a corpse, and the look of 

 agony and distress on her face startled me 

 more than did the boom of the volcano. I 

 came away at once, and said, "My dear 

 friend, for your sake I will come away, al- 

 though I do not think there can be anj' great 

 danger where your husband and I were stand- 

 ing." 



The lady was right; for, while Mr. P. and 

 myself could probably take care of ourselves, 

 we were setting a bc;d example to others ; and 

 I should not be at all surprised to hear that 

 some person, or perhaps a crowd of people, 

 have gone down into the boiling mud in their 

 eagerness to see a little more of the fascinat- 



ing scenes going on down in that terrible 

 crater. 



Our trip during the remainder of the after- 

 noon was mostly along the beautiful Yellow- 

 stone River. We saw tourists fishing every 

 now and then; and almost every angler seem- 

 ed to be rewarded with great trout, as large as 

 he could well pull ashore, and some of them 

 larger, in fact, than the fisher's children could 

 readily carry along. 



Ouiie a little before night we reached the 

 camp close by the falls, and almost on the 

 very brink of the Grand Canyon of the Yellow- 

 stone Park. I did not enjoy the sight of the 

 falls nor of the canyon as much as I might 

 have done otherwise, for two reasons. First, 

 I was not well enough to clamber up the 

 dizzy heights. Seconcily, I lacked the inspi- 

 ration and enthusiasm that always go with 

 me when riding my wheel every day. Now, I 

 do not know how it is with other people, but 

 with myself my physical make-up (or that 

 other fellow who goes along with me that I 

 have talked about) absolutely refused to rec- 

 ognize the awful depths that stretched before 

 us as we looked down. You understand, I 

 take it, the sense in which I use the word 

 zue. I climbed down to the brink of the 

 upper falls, and looked over. The guide says 

 the water falls 140 feet; but this fellow I have 

 told you about insisted that it was not more 

 than 40 feet, without the hundred. When I 

 tried to pitch a scone over, however, it seem- 

 ingly refused to drop straight down, but kept 

 drawing back toward my feet or under them. 

 I saw the foaming and seething water below, 

 but there did not seem to be anywhere near 

 the quantity that there was in the river as it 

 dashed over the cliff. The Great F'alls lower 

 down is 360 feet — perhaps a little more than 

 twice the height of Niagara; but when one 

 looks down to the bottom of the canyon the 

 distance does not stem to be at all astonish- 

 ing. Of course, the things down there have 

 a very strange look, and the water at the bot- 

 tom of the falls seems to run off into the sur- 

 face of the rock. At Inspiration Point, three 

 miles below, this thing I have mentioned 

 seems to be a little more emphatic. The eye, 

 the judgment, and the imagination refuse to 

 accept the awful truth. All of our senses are 

 unaccustomed to any such tremendous depths 

 and distances. You may throw a stone as far 

 as you can, at Inspiration Point, but it dis- 

 appears somewhere, and you never hear it 

 strike. In fact, you can not even hear the 

 roar of the cataract. There is a place where 

 tourists can go down by the aid of a guide, 

 with a rope, to the foot of the falls, and the 

 stoutest of our party took this trip while we 

 went up to Inspiration Point. While we were 

 standing there, and trying to take in the dis- 

 tance, one of the ladies suggested that we 

 might see the men-folks down at the bottom 

 of the falls. By looking intently we did see 

 some little specks like ants moving about. 

 One of the party suggested that it was the 

 men in their shirtsleeves. Then we saw the 

 rope attached to a pine-tree where they let 

 them down the side of the cliff. When we 

 finally realized that these microscopic beings 



