29 



the sides of the cafion into the fantastic forms they now pre- 

 sent, by wearing a\v;iy the softer rock and leaving the hard 

 basalt and the tinner hot-spring deposits standing in mas- 

 sive columns and Gothic pinnacles. The basis material of 

 the old hot-spring deposits is silica, originally white as 

 snow, but now stained by mineral waters with every shade 

 of red and yellow, from scarlet to rose color, from bright sul- 

 phur to the daintiest tint of green. When the light falls fa- 

 vorably upon these blended tints, the Grand Canon presents a 

 more enchanting and bewildering variety of forms and col- 

 ors than human artists ever conceived. The erosion was 

 practically arrested at the upper end of the canon by a sud- 

 den transition from the softer breccia to hard basalt, and the 

 falls were the result. 



Nos. 248,249. Grand Canon, looking down from over the Lower Falls,, 

 west side. 



Nos. 250, 251. Grand Canon from the east bank. 



No. 252. Grand Canon. West side, one mile below the falls, looking 

 down. 



No. 253. Grand Canon from the east side, one mile below the falls, 

 looking down. 



No. 254. The walls of the canon, as seen from below. . 



Nos. 255, 25G. Crystal Falls. Cascade Creek, is a small tributary of the 

 Yellowstone, cutting its way through a deep canon of vol- 

 canic ash and basalt, and just before its union with the Yel- 

 lowstone ilowingover a series of ledges, making a cascade as 

 beautiful as its previous course has been weird and ugly. 

 There is first a fall of live feet, and another of fifteen ; then it 

 Spreads out over the rocks down an abrupt descent of eighty- 

 four feet. 



Nos. 257-25'J. Rapids above the Upper Falls of the Yellowstone. 



The fust view is immediately above the falls, showing the 

 narrow rock-bound channel, the other two a quarter of a mile 

 farther up the stream, and showing the huge, detached masses 

 of basalt that have been left standing in the middle of the 

 river. 



No. 2G0. Sulphur SPRING. At Crater Hills, ten miles above the falls, on 

 the east side of the Yellowstone, in the center of a most inter- 

 esting group of hot springs, is a magnificent sulphur spring. 

 The deposits around it are silica and enamel like the finest por- 

 celain. The thin edges of the nearly circular rim extend over 

 the waters of the basin several feet, the open portion being fif- 

 teen feet in diameter. The water is in a constant state of 

 agitation, and seems to affect the entire mass, carrying it up 

 impulsively to a height of four or five feet. The decorations 

 about the spring, the most beautiful scalloping around the 

 rim, and the inner and outer surface, covered with a sort 

 of pearl-like bead work, give it great beauty. 



No. 261. Mud SPRINGS, at Crater Hills, near the Sulphur Spring. 



The contents of 1 his spring are a fine, silicious, pearl-colored 

 mud, of the consistency of thick hasty-pudding. The sur- 

 face is covered all over with pulls of mud which, as they 

 burst, give off a thud-like noise, and then the fine mud re- 

 cedes from the center of the puffs in the most perfect series 

 of rings to the side. The explosion is produced by the escape 

 of sulphureted hydrogen gas through the mud. 



