AND RETURN TO SAN FRANCISCO. AY 
ouide, who had made several visits to the geysers, 
their activity has greatly diminished, or we saw them 
under less favorable auspices than usual. He said that 
when last here the water spouted up from five to ten 
feet in height; that the jets of steam were much larger 
and more steady; and furthermore, that a day often ex- 
hibited a material difference. That the action has les- 
sened, and nearly ceased, is certain as respects the first 
one we visited ; for it now appears like an expiring fire. 
When Professor Shepherd visited this place, a year 
before us, he says that within the space of half a mile 
square he “discovered from one to two hundred open- 
ings, through which the steam issued with violence, 
sending up columns of steam to the height of one hun- 
dred and fifty to two hundred feet,” * * * and again, 
“throwing out jets or volumes of hot scalding water 
some twenty or thirty feet, endangering the lives of 
those who stood near. In some places the steam and 
water came in contact, so as to produce a constant jet 
d'eau, or spouting fountain, with a dense cloud above 
the spray, affording vivid prismatic hues in the sun- 
shine.” With such jets of water and steam as these, 
the grandeur of this extraordinary spot would be 
sreatly enhanced. 
Our dinner was soon ready, and we seated our- 
selves on the grass again, with appetites sharpened by 
a lone fast and a laborious tramp of nearly ten hours. 
Sticks of the same delicious bear’s meat, and veni- 
son were placed before us, with a second course, on 
smaller sticks, of some fine grouse which MacDonald 
had shot. This was a bird I had not before seen. It 
was larger than the ordinary prairie fowl, and proved 
