68 



EEPOET UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



report for 1879 (pp. 24-27), will give tlie result of Ms observations for 

 1879 at the Mammoth Hot Springs : 



Month. 



Average temperature. 



Lowest 

 temper- 



Highest 

 temper- 









Sunrise. 



Noon. 



Sunset. 



ature. 



ature. 











o 



o 







43 



70 



57 



36 



80 



59 



80 



63 



32 



88 



49 



74 



69 



42 



86 



39 



60 



53 



25 



78 



22 



52 



30 



20 



70 



23 



40 



31 



2 



65 



12 



43 



18 

 73 



12 



54 





46 

 84 



30 



Snowy 

 days. 



June (18 days) 



July 



August 



September 



October 



November 



December (26 days) 



August 1 to 16, on way to Geysers 



None. 

 None. 

 None. 



On the 8tli of October there were 2 feet of snow, and during most of the month 

 there was snow on the ground. 



The following table is comi)iled from the record of temperatures taken 

 during 1880 at the Mammoth Hot Springs by one of Superintendent 

 Norris's assistants (see his report for 1880, pp. 52-57) : 



Tahle of temperatures of air, Mammoth Hot Springs. 



Month. 



Average temperature. 



Lowest 

 temper- 









Sunrise. 



Noon. 



Sunset. 



ature. 



o Y. 



p. 



y 



p. 



18 



27 



21 



-36 



12 



28 



18 



—16 



13 



30 



22 



-40 



50 



68 



62 



41 



50 



68 



64 



35 



41 



66 



58 



30 



32 



57 



42 



14 



5 



24 



17 



—22 



16 



25 



20 



-26 



Highest 

 temper- 

 ature. 



1880. 

 January . . 

 i'ebrua'ry. 



March 



July 



August 



September 

 October . . . 

 November 

 December 



o p. 



On the 13th of March the mercury froze, 

 in one-half of an hour. 



On January 29 the thermometer fell 26° 



Mr. Walter Trumbull, in his article in the Overland Monthly (vol. vi, 

 p. 495), says : 



As an agricultural country I was not favorably impressed with the great Yellow- 

 stone Basin, but its brimstone resources are ample for all the match-makers of the 

 world. A snow storm in September, 2 feet deep, is hardly conducive to any Mud 

 of agricultural enterprise or stock-raising. 



At a ranch on the Yellowstone, below the mouth of Gardiner's Eiver, 

 there was a garden and potatoes were successfully raised in 1878. This 

 is just beyond the limits of the Park, and the elevation is below 5,500 

 feet ; but even here gardening is precarious. Although frosty nights 

 are the rule in the Park, the cold is less severely felt than in the East, 

 probably because of the extreme dryness of the atmosphere. A temper- 

 ature of 15° or 20° does not cause as much discomfort as 40° in the 

 East, where there is so much more moisture in the air. 



As to the scenery of the Park, a few words are all that will be neces- 

 sary here. The various' picturesque views in the Park have so often 

 been illustrated and its wonderful scenery so often described that a repe- 

 tition here is needless. As the vivid coloring of the walls of the Grand 

 CaQou of the Yellowstone has been often questioned by those who have 

 never visited the region, I will quote a description of its coloring from 



