| Show A WATER VOLCANO facets about the celebrated excelsior geyser I 1 the famous excelsior geyser which as the press dispatches an dounce burst into active eruption in the yellowstone national park ou on august is the moat most terrible water volcano in the world according to the N X Y herald it was discovered and made known to the scientific world by prof hayden in 1871 at that time it was not distinctly characterized as a is geyser but it attracted his attention as a marvelously active and sinister looking cauldron of boil boiling in water wate r and was so impressive that be e chart ed it in hia his reports and made particular mention of it both on his first and second explorations ions of the yellowstone geyser basins tho the excelsior or as atia called in some of the governmental re porte ports sheridan geyser is situated on the right or westerly bank of the fire hole rf baver iver about eight miles south of the forks of the fire hole where they form a it junction with the gibbon it ia is the great reat feature of what is known as A helle ells half acre a detached terrace of volcanic springs lying between the lower and upper tipper geyger basins I 1 lu each of these two greater basins there are numerous active geysers but at sit heldra 1 half acre the excel mor bior is the only geyser the other thermal pools being simply hot springs one of them however termed the great prismatic spring being of extraordinary size nn and beauty the excelsior and the prismatic are the two chief objects on the terrace When Hayden first saw the excelsior it was a deep blue cistern scalding hot and greatly agitated by tho ibo subterranean heat beat its waters were level with floor of the lite terrace it had a narrow fissure like outlet furrowed by the action of the water on the winter af yuhi which ch the terrace has abeen been formed and which ita Us water was vas die dis charged into the armhole alre hole it was then of bf a dr diameter amiter of something like fifty feet on his second vis visit it hayden found that the basin had been considerably enlarged by the action of the spring and thaties tha tits outlet channel had bad grown wider and more irregular for seven or ir 4 j u vi 0 to the few travel trav ellere lira who fou found d their way through this we weird i rd region it was on the night of january 24 1881 however that the great pool ool suddenly and unexpectedly burst burst forth as a geyser with much of the dreadful roar and subterranean gar ff of df a fiery volcano and with most destructive energy against its own walla walls th the out y burst or explosion occurred after midnight and wae was heard by geo W marshall a pioneer who bad had wandered into this wild wilderness erve 68 of wonders a year or two before and had made b his is camp at the forks of the fire hole and where ho he live liva to this day it if was in the dead of un an icebound ice bound winter in in this rocky Aloun mountain tai n I 1 realm but marshall says the noise noise the rumblings gs tho the explosions and the tile ings of the earth that accompanied the eruption awoke him at tit a distance ot of certainly eight miles wiles and appalled him never the tb elees leks he surmised what tile up roar port portended ended and early next morn morning ug he h e rode over oyer to the half acre to see what sort of infernal excavation had been going OB on during the night his anticipation was verified the excelsior pool was then in a perfect frenzy and the tile destruction it bad wrought was terrible the terrace aud and the opposite cosite bank of the river were yere strewn with masses of rock bowl dere and huge as well as small u of the il licious sinter of which not only the surface of the bank but its subs sub stratum and even the low lower er depths m and channels 0 I 1 the great spring itself were composed in its terrible throe tho the monster had bad belch ed volleys of those from ita its throat it had thrown up also perfect deluges of scalding sitter CC that had bad drenched everyL bin ad hundreds of yards around bad raised the level of tile river a foot and healed heated it iti current for miles thereafter the excelsior became one odthe of the marvels of the region though comparatively few were fortunate enough to witness its eruptions which took place at it irregular intervals of offid ceen to twenty five days and lasted about six or eight bight hours these great concu convulsions I 1 mons throwing a column of water about two hundred feel feet high tore open the outlet and made it a deep and ragged channel widened the margins odthe of the poo pool itself and lowered the ho surface of the water abut alvut twelve feet athe ia the feytl t of the tle low cst point of 0 tb the outlet th basin 1 bai hai now st a diameter af two hundred feet she aidau was for fortunate dunate arlough tu to see ee jt ft twice or ulrica in eruption while on tours of military inspection through tha the region it always aft attracted tt acte d I 1 lue i 1 is most wonder ring ing admiration and some goin 6 of hil hia s friends called it the sheridan gey ser q ja V f 1 I 1 I 1 I 1 I 1 t I 1 1 1 1 01 o 1 al 1 I 1 |
