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F. Shepherd on the Phiton Geysers of California. 155 



ter, ahtl the mercury at once rose to one hundred and twenty de- 

 grees:, From obser^^ations ah'eady made, by myself and in com- 

 jmny with Professor Jauies Nooney, I now fgit that I could trace 

 the line of therii.ai action, and ray next .object was to find the 

 seat or focus of its greatest intensity. To accomplish this I was 

 so fortunate as to have the aid of Messrs. P. Cyrus, J. CyruSj and 

 B. F. Briggs, three excellent young gentlemen and experienced 

 hunters. We travelled northwesterly from the head of Napa val- 

 ley, and after encamping one or two nights in the rain, and wan- 

 dering through almost impenetrable thickets, reached the summit 

 of a high peak on the morning of the fourth day. On the west 

 we saw the vast Pacific. On the south, the Bay of San Fran- 

 cisco, Mount Diabalo * Sonoma and Napa valleys. On the south- 

 ^'est, the valleys of Santa Rosa and Russian river. On the east, 

 the lofty range of the Sierra Nevada : while on the north, almost 

 immediately at our feet, there opened an immense chasm appa- 

 rently formed by the rending of the mountains in a direction from 

 west to east- The sun's rays had already penetrated into the 

 narrow valley and so lighted up the deep defile, that from a dis- 

 tance of four or five miles, we distinctly saw clouds and dense 

 columns of steam rapidly rising from the banks of the little river 

 Pluton. It was now the eighth of February : the mountain peaks 

 in the distance were covered with snow, while the valley at our 

 feet wore the verdant garb of summer. It was with difficulty we 

 could persuade ourselves that we were not looking down upon 

 some manufacturing city, such as Pittsburg or Wheeling, until 

 by a tortuous descent we arrived at the spot where at once the 

 secrets of the inner world opened upon our astonished senses. 

 Iti the space of half a mile square we discovered from one to two 

 hundred openings through which the steam issued with violence, 

 sending up columns of dense steam to the height of one hundred 

 and fifty to two hundred feet, like our largest ocean steamers, 

 and gradually diminishing to engines of one or two horse power. 



A he roar of the larger tubes could be heard for a mile or more. 

 Ihe sharp hissing of the smaller ones is still ringing in my ears. 

 Many of them would work spasmodically, precisely like high 

 pressure engines. Throwing out occasional jets or volumes of 

 not scalding water some twenty or thirty feet, endangering the 

 lives of those who rashly venture too near. In some places the 

 fj^^^^^^and water come in contact so' as to produce a constant 



J^t (Teau^^ or spouting fountain with a dense cloud above the 

 sp^ay, aff^ording vivid prismatic hues in the snnshine. 



J^umerous cones are formed by the accumulation of various min- 

 ^^al salts and a deposit oi sulphur crystals with earthy matter, 



Mount Diabolo is reported to be an extinct volcanic cone 



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