i, 
4 
THE GEYSERS OF MONTANA. 
Tue first detailed account we have of these wonders of geology 
was published by Mr. N. P. Langford, who was one of an explor- 
ing party under General Washburn, sent out in the summer of 1870. 
His article was published in “ Scribner’s Monthly,” while the official 
report to Congress was written By Lieutenant Doane, U. S. A. 
From Professor F. V. Hayden’s interesting and valuable report for 
1871 we take the following still more extended account of these 
geysers, and are indebted to him for the use of the accompanying 
„illustrations. 
» 
The geyser basin of Fire Hole river is near Yellowstone lake, 
the source of the Yellowstone river, of the wonders of which we 
give some account elsewhere in this number. 
In the course of their wanderings in search of the Fire Hole 
basin the party under Prof. Hayden fortunately struck the sources 
of the East Fork of the Madison instead of those of the Fire Hole, 
and thus were enabled to see many fine springs which would other- 
wise have escaped attention, and there is no doubt, says Prof. 
Hayden, that subsequent explorations about the sources of the 
Tellowstons. Missouri and Snake rivers, will reveal many other 
stoups of hot springs and geysers. 
The entire valley of the East Fork, from its source to its junc- 
tion with the Madison, extending over an area twenty-five miles 
long, and an ay erage of half a mile in width, is covered with the 
sitions deposits of the hot springs, ancient and modern. The 
d of the stream i is lined with white silica, and the valley itself 
looks like an alkali flat. One group of thirty or forty springs is 
- noticed, and the springs of the Lower Geyser basin are described 
and mapped. The main basin, the most beautiful of all in this last 
group, was ten by fifteen feet, the water 128°, marvellously trans- 
parent and of a most delicate blue ; as the surface is stirred by the 
Passing breeze, all the colors of the prism are shewn, literally a 
Series of rainbows. He calls the most delicately colored springs 
ismatic Springs. - 
tabs the Fire Hole basin, the party visited one of the most 
_ Yemarkable mud-pots in the valley (Fig. 57). “The a 
2 (279) 
