New National Era

The Wonders of the Yellowstone.

There is probably no more magnificent region of strange freaks of nature than the valley of the Yellowstone river, and the country almost immediately around it. Here, lying far up north, are the counterparts of the Geysers of Iceland and mountains abounding in the rarest forms of crystallization. New discoveries are being made here constantly. The United States Geographical Survey, now at Fort Hall, report, recently, the exploration of another Geyser basin, rivaling the "Fire Hole" of the Yellowstone. This last is near Shoshone lake. One Geyser—the "Union"—presented the curious phenomenon of sending water from one, and steam from the other mouth, "resembling a great engine." Another was named the "Minute Man"—one minute never passing without an ebullition. The craters were beautifully colored by mineral deposits. A correspondent of the Evening Post says:

The effect of the Union Geyser, when in action, was most grand, the water shooting to a height of seventy feet, when, breaking into spray, it fell to the earth in a shower of drops, each one sparkling under the sun's rays, and forming a splendid bow; while from the other mouth rose thundering a cloud of steam, whose misty column contrasted strongly with the limpid water of the first.