THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK 55 



world, and had miraculous virtues ascribed to 

 them. Even in these cold, doubting, question- 

 ing, scientific times many of the Yellowstone 

 fountains seem able to work miracles. Near the 

 Prismatic Spring is the great Excelsior Geyser, 

 which is said to throw a column of boiling water 

 60 to 70 feet in diameter to a height of from 50 

 to 300 feet, at irregular periods. This is the 

 greatest of all the geysers yet discovered anywhere. 

 The Firehole River, which sweeps past it, is, at 

 ordinary stages, a stream about 100 yards wide 

 and 3 feet deep ; but when the geyser is in 

 eruption, so great is the quantity of water dis- 

 charged that the volume of the river is doubled, 

 and it is rendered too hot and rapid to be forded. 



Geysers are found in many other volcanic re- 

 gions, — in Iceland, New Zealand, Japan, the 

 Himalayas, the Eastern Archipelago, South 

 America, the Azores, and elsewhere ; but only in 

 Iceland, New Zealand, and this Rocky Mountain 

 park do they display their grandest forms, and of 

 these three famous regions the Yellowstone is 

 easily first, both in the number and in the size of 

 its geysers. The greatest height of the column 

 of the Great Geyser of Iceland actually measured 

 was 212 feet, and of the Strokhr 162 feet. 



In New Zealand, the Te Pueia at Lake Taupo, 

 the Waikite at Rotorna, and two others are said 

 to lift their waters occasionally to a height of 100 

 feet, while the celebrated Te Tarata at Rotomahana 



