82 WALKS AND TALKS. 



torn of which is an irregular orifice, the head of the geyser 

 " tube." The eruption begins with some preliminary splashes 

 or spurts from three to a dozen or more which appear like 

 abortive attempts at eruption. These grow more powerful for 

 about four minutes when jets in rapid succession escape with 

 a roar, and soon attain the maximum height. In a few sec- 

 onds later the column subsides with occasional vigorous spurts. 

 The water eruption is followed by steam which escapes gently 

 and soon dies away, leaving the crater empty. The water is 

 thrown to a maximum height of one hundred and fifty feet. 



General Sherman thus describes "Old Faithful:" "We 

 saw Old Faithful perform at intervals of sixty-two to eighty 

 minutes. So regular are its periods of activity that we could 

 foretell its movements within a few minutes. Sometimes we 

 stood near enough to feel the hot spray, and at others, we sat 

 at our camp, three hundred yards away. Each eruption was 

 similar, preceded by about five minutes of sputtering, and then 

 would arise a column of hot water, steaming and smoking, to 

 the height of one hundred and twenty-five or one hundred and 

 thirty feet, the steam going a hundred or more feet higher, 

 according to the state of the wind. The whole performance 

 lasts about five minutes, when the column of water gradually 

 sinks, and the spring resumes its normal state of rest." Re- 

 ports of Inspections, 1877, p. 36. 



The "Giantess" geyser, belonging also, to a group on the 

 upper Firehole, has an inconspicuous crater, but is charac- 

 terized by magnificent eruptions. Mr. N. P. Langford writes 

 of it: "No water could be discovered, but we could dis- 

 tinctly hear it gurgling and boiling at a great distance below. 

 Suddenly it began to rise, boiling and spluttering, and send- 

 ing out huge masses of steam, causing a general stampede of 

 our company. When within about forty feet of the surface, 

 it became stationary, and we returned to look down upon it. 

 It was foaming and surging at a terrible rate, occasionally 

 emitting small jets of hot water nearly to the mouth of the 

 orifice. All at once it seemed seized with a fearful spasm, and 

 rose with incredible rapidity, hardly affording us time to flee 



