340 THE GEYSERS OF CALIFORNIA. 
there was a furious little cauldron seething at 200°. Sev- 
eral of the springs had low forms of cryptogamic vegeta- 
tion growing upon the walls of the basins, and, in some 
instances, confervæ were observed thriving in water of a 
temperature of 145° Fahr. Seventy or eighty rods from 
the mouth of the cañon, there is a jet of escaping steam, 
and a little farther on there is an escape-pipe, nearly ten 
inches in diameter, through which steam is forced out 
several feet. Part of the steam condenses at five feet 
from the orifice, the rest ascends as light vapor, and is 
borne away by the wind. The greatest degree of tempera- 
ture observed was 206° Fahr., where there was, of course, 
as in the other cases mentioned, apparent ebullition from 
escape of gases. In no instance was the temperature of 
500° noticed, which Mr. Bowles* speaks of in his en- 
tertaining “Across the Continent.” Obviously, this is a 
slip of a flying quill. 
Upon the east and west sides of the cañon, at this 
point, the ground is made up of decomposing rocks of 
clayey consistence, and of various colors dependent upon 
metallic oxides; each little locality seeming to be a labo- 
ratory for the decomposition of silicates. Wherever the 
light soil was dry, there was no vegetation whatever; 
wherever there was a good degree of humidity, confer- 
void growths were scattered. Near springs, a few r 
farther east, a species of grass, Panicum, was seen grow- 
ing; and, in one instance, at the water’s edge where the 
panicle was bathed in slowly-rising vapor. This species 
is abundant near fumaroles, which are little natural blast 
chimneys, lined with crystalline needles of sublimed sul- 
phur. 
Se a ik 
*“ Across the Continent,” p.282. They are of all degrees of temperature, 
tron AST the Continent,” p.289. «Th 
