MAMMOTH SPRINGS 201 



Here we found the ladies and our friends, the 

 G.'s, and were immediately started on a round of 

 sight-seeing. Started, did I say? Nay — dragged. 

 How I envied Mr. G. his firmness. Those sights, 

 which he could see from his surrey and the hotel 

 veranda, were well enough. 



But when it came to climbing up formations, 

 getting his feet scalded, losing his wind, to see 

 a few more geysers, not he. He had been an 

 athlete in his youth and had taken so much exer- 

 cise then that he had never required any since. 

 So he viewed the hot springs from a distance, while 

 we ^^saw things." 



There are plenty of things to see, for the "for- 

 mation" is wholly different from that elsewhere. 

 Old Faithful deposits a silicate, while these springs 

 are calcareous. The formation of Old Faithful 

 grows very slowly, imperceptibly. Even now, 

 after thousands, possibly millions, of years, its 

 mound is but a few feet above the valley. Here 

 the springs have combined in the ages to raise a 

 great hill three hundred feet in height, and they are 

 still building. You can see the process every- 



