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OLD FAITHFUL, LOWER GEYSER BASIN.—Old Faithful is the most interesting and popular of the many geysers in National Park, because it can be relied upon to give an exhibition regularly every fifty-seven minutes. At these intervals, with the regularity of the beating of a healthy pulse, it emits a stream of hot water six feet in diameter to a height of 130 feet, and lasting five minutes. The amount of water thus discharged every hour is estimated to be about 100,000 gallons, or enough to supply a small river. This has been going perhaps for centuries, and will doubtless continue for centuries to come. ]
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[Illustration: RUSTIC FALLS, GOLDEN GATE ROAD.]
After two days spent among the Upper and Lower Basin Geysers, with our cameras in constant service, for the sun shone brightly, we went a few miles further down to Lone Star Geyser, Hot Springs, and to the high lands above Grant’s Pass. From this latter point of observation a magnificent view was had and photographs obtained of the Great Teton Mountains and Snake River Valley, which fill the distance with lines of hazy grandeur. Turning then towards the east we crossed Norris Pass (8,350 feet altitude), and after twenty miles of travel emerged from the forest and reached the Thumb of Yellowstone Lake, as it is called. This magnificent body of water is fifteen miles wide by twenty-five in length, and is a basin of wonderful beauty, thus described by Mr. Langford:
“Secluded amid the loftiest peaks of the Rocky Mountains, possessing strange peculiarities of form and beauty, this watery solitude is one of the most attractive objects in the world. Its southern shore, indented with long, narrow islets, not unlike the frequent fiords of Iceland, bears testimony to the awful upheaval and tremendous force of the elements which resulted in its creation. Islands of emerald hue dot its surface, and a margin of sparkling sands forms its setting. The winds, compressed in their passage through the mountain gorges, lash it into a sea as terrible as the fretted ocean, covering it with foam.”
In several places along the shore, and even projecting from the lake, are several boiling hot springs, which flowing with clear water holding lime in solution, pyramidal cones are thus built around their outlets, giving to them the appearance of ant-mounds when seen at a distance. Professor Hayden startles us with the statement that he has caught fish from the ice-cold lake while standing on these mounds, and dropping them into the craters of hot water, had the novel experience of cooking the fish without removing them from the hook.