Show mm GEYSERS IT NOT WANING I Ic c Superintendent of t Yellowstone Park Par Denies DeD Report il t to o ENERGY IS UNABATED CHANGES ARE IN DIRECTION OF OP THE FORCE FoRCE 0 Growler Quadrupled Qua In Power Basins s Increases in Activity A Old Faith Faithful th ful Spouts Regularly R as Ever Evar EV r Some Springs Die Out Ou J But Others Take Their Places I Special Sp Correspondence ce Washington D C q May lIay 19 Captain ln Henry M Chittenden superintendent of the Yellowstone park furnishes an in account pf pt the Yellowstone goy gay ers era to eastern papers He says sas There was recently published in illa a French scientific paper Ciel et Terre of Paris an article on the Yellowstone Na park in which the writer who had d lately visited the park parl holds hold that the unction geysers Ser are rW rapidly Y Approaching g ex cx The article has bp been n wf widely I copied throughout the United States and has gone a long way toward increasing the impression that the Yellowstone Won derland so far as 88 retards regards the hot springs and geysers Is practically a thing of the thc Past Both in his is Premises and the author o of thi this article l is wh wholly y astray and it is a good example of or how even a scientific observer may draw wrong Conclusions if he fails faUs to examine all ail sides of a question A few eXamples will Illustrate Ro Roaring mo mountain which the tha author of the th H Ciel et ot Terre article did td not hear hoar hearn roar n neVer has roared to any y notable ex ox tent Some enthusiastic explorer In past years happened I pene by this hilt hill when there was an excessive 81 e c p of steam heard the shrill sound wh h it t caused and the hill bill with the tile name Of Hoar Ro Bo r lag Ing m mOuntain tain B But t it is doubtful If any ny one has ever hoard heard It i roar oar any ny more than it does now certainly It is as active as it it itha has ha been for fifteen or twenty years pas past J The Growler rowl J is another example in ini whIch the the auth authors rs conclusions arc ox ex i the opposite of the facts This fi steam m vent has quadrupled In power Dower in ini the past ten years A close observer would i have seen this if 1 he had taken tak note of the great destruction which te Is teI IsI I going on in the surrounding trees tr es There I I are several acres of ground around this SH spring n on which the trees have been jeen een killed during the past six years Ob Oh its torca and volume have great ly increased or Its destructive influence in would not be so much extended Basin Grows In Activity A little inquiry would further have bave shown this investigator that close by b the Growler the government has In re cent years been compelled to change its road because of the outbreak of springs I and geysers of great energy and power I In fact this entire basin called the Nor ris na Geyser basin is steadily increasing t In activity The Old Fountain F O n geyser in I the lower basin has indeed be become become become I I come extinct but its energy has h been transferred to another near by which appeared simultaneously with the dis appearance of the th old The rho Great Gr Foun tain geyser displays the same activity that it did when W he first firs t described 9 C scribe d c by FoE Fol Folsom 01 t som In Excelsior geyser has hIlS been in tion nut hut two tw or thred thre times timen since the discovery of this region It cIs is the most powerful geyser ge r In the th park and d during I its last eruption it b t through the rim which separates IP if i V from the Fire hole hol river This let tIle the tl water in the pool escape and lowered its level several I I feet The Tha Th relief roUe of pressure thus brought I Ivery about very likely accounts for its fail failure failure ure to be in eruption e in recent years but its volume of Is as great I 1 as it ever was WS r rOld Old Faithful Still Regular I Old Faithful shows hov no perceptible change either in y or iI height of eruption The Bee Hive is less frequent in eruption than it used to be but others in the neighborhood are be re more mor active e Geyser Geys G r action on the shore of the Yellow Yellowstone Yellowstone I stone lake lakO is more vigorous vig rous than it was wasten wasten wasten ten years ago go Mud geyser In the th past few years has shown more violence and ind nd power pow er than over ever before ince It was dis discovered covered The springs on Sulphur moun appear exactly as they did ten years ago The Tho various features f throughout the park known as paint pots show no perceptible change 5 I The mammoth hot springs show more change than any nay other feature But this Is due to migration ratHer than extinction While the springs on one side aide are arc dying out those on the other oth r are increasing and it is difficult to say y on which side the balance lies bee Energy Is shed To those long acquainted with the park the changes do not appear app a extensive The total sum of thermal energy dis displayed displayed displayed I played seems to be about the same that it was years ago Springs die dio out and others take their places and andI there is a Do constant change of this sort I going on If an observer wanted to tomake tomake tomake make out a case on ox ex parte testimony that the geysers are aro becoming extinct he could easily do d so With equal ease could he make out exactly the opposite case cri c It ii is entirely ly probable that th t the broad b oad operation of general causes Is on the gen general general general eral side of or ultimate extinction of all ther trier thermal thermal mal activity in this t is region The evolution evolution evolution tion of the earth is In that direction But the process Is a very slow one and the tourist in the year oo 00 will find things In Inthis Inthis Inthis this region very much as we find them today Apart from the geysers and hot springs the other scenic attractions remain the same but are more accessible Sible than ever before before while the function of the park parkas as a game preserve is yearly increasing asing in importance |