MAMMOTH SPRINGS. 89 



tains. At the northern end of this "park" which has an 

 area of 3,575 square miles, rises a greyish- white cliff about 

 three miles in length, which on a nearer approach resolves 

 itself into a series of terraces, the steps of which are occupied 

 by numerous natural basins, some gigantic, some minute, 

 and all overhung by clouds of silver vapour. Some of the 

 terraces are several feet wide, others quite narrow, and the 

 steps also vary in height from ten feet to an inch or two. 



The top level is 150 feet wide, and here rises the largest 

 spring in a basin forty feet long and twenty-five wide. The 

 principal springs occur on the first ten terraces, and the clear, 

 blue water, flows down from various openings in the rims of 

 the basins, whose general shape is oval, the edges being scal- 

 loped in graceful curves with wavy frill-like borders, fre- 

 quently adorned with pearly knobs from the size of a pin's 

 head to that of a hazel-nut, or with wonderful incrustations 

 resembling coral, moss, feathers, butterflies' wings, &c. The 

 prevailing colour is a rich cream, but there are touches of 

 bright sulphur-yellow, delicate pink and salmon, vivid scarlet, 

 green, rose, crimson, purple, and brown. This beauty is 

 produced by very simple means, and the marble basins, 

 ornaments, and all, are merely carbonate of lime coloured by 

 iron and sulphur, and have been deposited by the water.* 



The water of the Mammoth springs, which of course 

 still contains a large quantity of mineral matter, notwith- 

 standing these deposits, flows by several channels into 

 Gardiner's River, and so to the ocean (Fig. 1 9). 



* There are similar terraces of basins, also formed by hot springs, at 

 Te Tarata, New Zealand ; but these, though as white as marble, are de- 

 posited by water containing silica instead of carbonate of lime. 



