PEALE.] LOWEB GEYSEB BASIN FOUNTAm -GROUP. 151 



of these is about 50 feet in diameter, and cavem-like, with greenish- 

 tinted wutei'. The small basin or bowl measures about 15 feet by 6 or 

 8 feet. 

 The following are the temperatures that were taken this year (1878): 



Date. 



Tomper- 

 ataro. 



Condition of basins, &c. 





o -p. 



199 



200 

 174 



Basin is fnll 10 minntea before the emption. 

 Basin is full 1 minute before the eruption. 



2 . . 



2 



About an hour ai'ter the eruption and the water is perfectly qoiet. 







The temperature of the water in the pool was 160° F. 



The eruptions witnessed by us are not known to be consecutive. The 

 first one occurred on October 1, and lasted 17 minutes. The spouting 

 occurs from the crater-like hole, and preceding the action the water 

 was boiling rather vigorously, somewhat like the Giantess in the Upper 

 Basin. A great mass of water was pushed out tumultuously to an 

 average height of about 10 feet, and through this jets were projected 

 which reached a maximum height of 50 feet. There appeared to be sev- 

 eral centers from which the steam escaped, and the water was churned 

 and dashed about until it was a white mass. There were periods of in- 

 creased activity and cessation. About half an hour before the eruption 

 the water did not quite fill the basin, but immediately after it was over 

 it was level with the top, eight minutes later it was 6 inches below the 

 rim. After none of the eruptions was the basin entirely empty. Pro- 

 fessor Comstock describes the eruptions seen by him in 1873 as follows : 



* " * The water in No. 5 [Fonntain] which had previously been qniet and not 

 entirely filled, rose suddenly until the bowl was ready to overflow, when a large 

 amount was elevated to a height varying from 6 to 10 feet, in a column of nearly equal 

 diameter. The action began at 4.40 p. m. (August 23), and the eruption did not cease 

 wholly until 5.40 p. m. Occasionally very sudden impulses would carry smaller but 

 quite large columns 25 and 30 feet into the air. Sometimes the whole would gradu- 

 ally die down, and more than once when I thought that the ejection had ended, a 

 vigorous throb would violently throw the water and vapor to its greatest height. The 

 rushing noise produced by the escaping liquid was very loud, and a subsequent erup- 

 tion, which occurred from 7.30 a. m. to 8 30 a. m.. on the following morning, was dis- 

 tinctly audible at our camp near White Dome Geyser, more than a mile distant. At 

 the close of the first eruption the water receded in the bowl, so that we could look 

 down many feet into the large open pit which was thiis formed- * * * A third 

 eruption of this geysor (apparently) began at 1.20 p. m.^ August 24, the duration of 

 which was not detaL-mined, * 



Captain Ludlow witnessed an eruption of the Fountain in 1875, and 

 describes it as follows : 



The water, of a deep azruro hue and a surprising clearness, was rising gradually but 

 constantly to the level of its scalloped and ornamented rim, constantly becomiug hot- 

 ter and hotter, with bubbles of steam escaping more and more rapidly. Ebullitiou 

 began near the middle, and the geyser finally commenced to spout, throwing the water 

 about in all directions and to heights varying from 10 to 50 feet. The display con- 

 tinued for over an hour, and we left it playing, but with gradually diminishing force. 

 Meanwhile other smaller geysers in the vicinity played from time to time, all appar- 

 ently independent of each other, t 



* Report of Recoimaissanoe of Northwest Wyoming in 1873 by Capt. W. A. Jones, 

 pp. 24;'>, 0. 



t Reconnaissance from Carroll, Mont., to Yellowstone National Park in 1875, by Oapt. 

 W. Ludlow, p. 25. 



