The San Francisco Calamity - Chapters 29-31



CHAPTER XXIX. 
ST. VINCENT ISLAND AND MONT SOUFRIERE IN 1812

Among all the islands of the Caribbees St. Vincent is unique in natural 
wonders and beauties. Situated about ninety-five miles west of Barbados, 
it has a length of eighteen and a width of eleven miles, the whole mass 
being largely composed of a single peak which rises from the ocean's bed. 
From north to south volcanic hills traverse its length, their ridges 
intersected by fertile and beautiful valleys. 

A ridge of mountains crosses the island, dividing it into eastern and 
western parts. Kingstown, the capital, a town of 8,000 inhabitants, is on 
the southward side and extends along the shores of a beautiful bay, with 
mountains gradually rising behind it in the form of a vast amphitheatre. 
Three streets, broad and lined with good houses, run parallel to the water-
front. There are many other intersecting highways, some of which lead back 
to the foothills, from which good roads ascend the mountains. 

The majority of the houses have red tile roofing and a goodly number of 
them are of stone, one story high, with thick walls after the Spanish 
style--the same types of houses that were in St. Pierre and which are not 
unlike the old Roman houses which in all stages of ruin and semi-
preservation are found in Pompeii to this day. 

Behind the general group of the houses of the town loom the Governor's 
residence and the buildings of the botanical gardens which overlook the 
town. 

Kingstown is the trading centre and the town of importance in the island. 
It contains the churches and chapels of five Protestant denominations and 
a number of excellent schools. Away from Kingstown, and the smaller 
settlement of Georgetown, the population is almost wholly rural, occupying 
scattered villages which consist of negro huts clustering around a few 
substantial buildings or of cabins grouped about old plantation buildings 
somewhat after the ante-bellum fashion in our own Southern States. 

One of the tragedies of the West Indies was the sinking of old Port Royal, 
the resort of buccaneers, in 1692. The harbor of Kingstown is commonly 
supposed to cover the site of the old settlement. There is a tradition 
that a buoy for many years was attached to the spire of a sunken church in 
order to warn mariners. Three thousand persons perished in the disaster. 

DESCENDANTS OF ORIGINAL INDIAN POPULATION 

The northern portion of the island, that desolated by the recent volcanic 
eruption, was inhabited by people living in the manner just described, the 
great majority of them being negroes. The total population of the island 
is about 45,000, of whom 30,000 are Africans and about 3,000 Europeans, 
the remainder being nearly all Asiatics. There are, or rather were, a 
number of Caribs, the descendants of the original warlike Indian 
population of these islands. Many of these live in St. Vincent, though 
there are others in Dominico. As their residence was in the northern 
section of the island, the volcano seems to have completed the work for 
the Caribs of this island which the Spaniard long ago began. These Caribs 
were really half-breds, having amalgamated with the negroes. Many of the 
blacks own land of their own, raising arrow root, which, since the decay 
of the sugar industry, is the chief export. 

In an island only eighteen miles long by eleven broad there is not room 
for any distinctly marked mountain range. The whole of St. Vincent, in 
fact, is a fantastic tumble of hills, culminating in the volcanic ridge 
which runs lengthwise of the oval-shaped island. The culminating peak of 
the great volcanic mass, for St. Vincent is nothing more, is Mont Garou, 
of which La Soufriere is a sort of lofty excrescence in the northwest, 4,
048 feet high, and flanking the main peak at some distance away. 

It may be said that all the volcanic mountains in this part of the West 
Indies have what the people call a "soufriere"--a "sulphur pit," or 
"sulphur crater"--the name coming, as in the case of past disturbances of 
Mont Pelee, from the strong stench of sulphuretted hydrogen which issues 
from them when the volcano becomes agitated. 

In 1812 it was La Soufriere adjacent to Mont Garou which broke loose on 
the island of St. Vincent, and it is the same Soufriere which again has 
devastated the island and has bombarded Kingstown with rocks, lava and 
ashes. 

The old crater of Mont Garou has long been extinct, and, like the old 
crater of Mont Pelee, near St. Pierre, it had far down in its depths, 
surrounded by sheer cliffs from 500 to 800 feet high, a lake. Glimpses of 
the lake of Mont Garou are difficult to get, owing to the thick verdure 
growing about the dangerous edges of the precipices, but those who have 
seen it describe it as a beautiful sheet of deep blue water. 

THE APPEARANCE OF THE SOUFRIERE 

Previous to the eruption of 1812 the appearance of the Soufriere was most 
interesting. The crater was half a mile in diameter and five hundred feet 
in depth. In its centre was a conical hill, fringed with shrubs and vines; 
at whose base were two small lakes, one sulphurous, the other pure and 
tasteless. This lovely and beautiful spot was rendered more interesting by 
the singularly melodious notes of a bird, an inhabitant of these upper 
solitudes, and altogether unknown to the other parts of the island--hence 
called, or supposed to be, "invisible," as it had never been seen. (It is 
of interest to state that Frederick A. Ober, in a visit to the island some 
twenty years ago, succeeded in obtaining specimens of this previously 
unknown bird.) From the fissures of the cone a thin white smoke exuded, 
occasionally tinged with a light blue flame. Evergreens, flowers and 
aromatic shrubs clothed the steep sides of the crater, which made, as the 
first indication of the eruption on April 27, 1812, a tremulous noise in 
the air. A severe concussion of the earth followed, and then a column of 
thick black smoke burst from the crater. 

THE ERUPTION OF 1812 

The eruption which followed these premonitory symptoms was one of the most 
terrific which had occurred in the West Indies up to that time. It was the 
culminating event which seemed to relieve a pressure within the earth's 
crust which extended from the Mississippi Valley to Caracas, Venezuela, 
producing terrible effects in the latter place. Here, thirty-five days 
before the volcanic explosion, the ground was rent and shaken by a 
frightful earthquake which hurled the city in ruins to the ground and 
killed ten thousand of its inhabitants in a moment of time. 

La Soufriere made the first historic display of its hidden powers in 1718, 
when lava poured from its crater. A far more violent demonstration of its 
destructive forces was that above mentioned. On this occasion the eruption 
lasted for three days, ruining a number of the estates in the vicinity and 
destroying many lives. Myriads of tons of ashes, cinders, pumice and 
scoriae, hurled from the crater, fell in every section of the island. 
Volumes of sand darkened the air, and woods, ridges and cane fields were 
covered with light gray ashes, which speedily destroyed all vegetation. 
The sun for three days seemed to be in a total eclipse, the sea was 
discolored and the ground bore a wintry appearance from the white crust of 
fallen ashes. 

Carib natives who lived at Morne Rond fled from their houses to Kingstown. 
As the third day drew to a close flames sprang pyramidically from the 
crater, accompanied by loud thunder and electric flashes, which rent the 
column of smoke hanging over the volcano. Eruptive matter pouring from the 
northwest side plunged over the cliff, carrying down rocks and woods in 
its course. The island was shaken by an earthquake and bombarded with 
showers of cinders and stones, which set houses on fire and killed many of 
the natives. 

THE TERRIBLE EARTHQUAKE AT CARACAS 

For nearly two years before this explosion earthquakes had been common, 
and sea and land had been agitated from the valley of the Mississippi to 
the coasts of Venezuela and the mountains of New Grenada, and from the 
Azores to the West Indies. On March 26, 1812, these culminated in the 
terrible tragedy, spoken of above, of which Humboldt gives us a vivid 
account. 

On that day the people of the Venezuelan city of Caracas were assembled in 
the churches, beneath a still and blazing sky, when the earth suddenly 
heaved and shook, like a great monster waking from slumber, and in a 
single minute 10,000 people were buried beneath the walls of churches and 
houses, which tumbled in hideous ruin upon their heads. The same 
earthquake made itself felt along the whole line of the Northern 
Cordilleras, working terrible destruction, and shook the earth as far as 
Santa Fe de Bogota and Honda, 180 leagues from Caracas. This was a 
preliminary symptom of the internal disorder of the earth. 

While the wretched inhabitants of Caracas who had escaped the earthquake 
were dying of fever and starvation, and seeking among villages and farms 
places of safety from the renewed earthquake shocks, the almost forgotten 
volcano of St. Vincent was muttering in suppressed wrath. For twelve 
months it had given warning, by frequent shocks of the earth, that it was 
making ready to play its part in the great subterranean battle. On the 
27th of April its deep-hidden powers broke their bonds, and the conflict 
between rock and fire began. 

THE MOUNTAIN STONES A HERD-BOY 

The first intimation of the outbreak was rather amusing than alarming. A 
negro boy was herding cattle on the mountain side. A stone fell near him. 
Another followed. He fancied that some other boys were pelting him from 
the cliff above, and began throwing stones upward at his fancied concealed 
tormentors. But the stones fell thicker, among them some too large to be 
thrown by any human hand. Only then did the little fellow awake to the 
fact that it was not a boy like himself, but the mighty mountain, that was 
flinging these stones at him. He looked up and saw that the black column 
which was rising from the crater's mouth was no longer harmless vapor, but 
dust, ashes and stones. Leaving the cattle to their fate, he fled for his 
life, while the mighty cannon of the Titans roared behind him as he ran. 
For three days and nights this continued; then, on the 30th, a stream of 
lava poured over the crater's rim and rushed downward, reaching the sea in 
four hours, and the great eruption was at an end. 

On the same day, says Humboldt, at a distance of more than 200 leagues, 
"the inhabitants not only of Caracas, but of Calabozo, situated in the 
midst of the Lianos, over a space of 4,000 square leagues, were terrified 
by a subterranean noise which resembled frequent discharges of the 
heaviest cannon. It was accompanied by no shock, and, what is very 
remarkable, was as loud on the coast as at eighty leagues' distance 
inland, and at Caracas, as well as at Calabozo, preparations were made to 
put the place in defence against an enemy who seemed to be advancing with 
heavy artillery." 

It was no enemy that man could deal with. Fortunately, it confined its 
assault to deep noises, and desisted from earthquake shocks. Similar 
noises were heard in Martinique and Guadeloupe, and here also without 
shocks. The internal thunder was the signal of what was taking place on 
St. Vincent. With this last warning sound the trouble, which had lasted so 
long, was at an end. The earthquakes which for two years had shaken a 
sheet of the earth's surface larger than half Europe, were stilled by the 
eruption of St. Vincent's volcanic peak. 

BARBADOS COVERED WITH ASHES 

Northeast of the original crater of the Soufriere a new one was formed 
which was a half mile in diameter and five hundred feet deep. The old 
crater was in time transformed into a beautiful blue lake, as above 
stated, walled in by ragged cliffs to a height of eight hundred feet. 

It was looked upon as a remarkable circumstance that although the air was 
perfectly calm during the eruption, Barbados, which is ninety-five miles 
to the windward, was covered inches deep with ashes. The inhabitants there 
and on other neighboring islands were terrified by the darkness, which 
continued for four hours and a half. Troops were called under arms, the 
supposition from the continued noise being that hostile fleets were in an 
engagement. 

The movement of the ashes to windward, as just stated, was viewed as a 
remarkable phenomenon, and is cited by Elise Reclus, in "The Ocean," to 
show the force of different aerial currents; "On the first day of May, 
1812, when the northeast trade-wind was in all its force, enormous 
quantities of ashes obscured the atmosphere above the Island of Barbados, 
and covered the ground with a thick layer. One would have supposed that 
they came from the volcanoes of the Azores, which were to the northeast; 
nevertheless they were cast up by the crater in St. Vincent, one hundred 
miles to the west. It is therefore certain that the debris had been 
hurled, by the force of the eruption, above the moving sheet of the trade- 
winds into an aerial river proceeding in a contrary direction." For this 
it must have been hurled miles high into the air, till caught by the 
current of the anti-trade winds. 

KINGSLEY'S VISIT TO SAINT VINCENT 

From Charles Kingsley's "At Last" we extract, from the account of the 
visit of the author to St. Vincent, some interesting matter concerning the 
1812 eruption and its effect on the mountain; also its influence upon 
distant Barbados, as just stated. 

"The strangest fact about this eruption was, that the mountain did not 
make use of its old crater. The original vent must have become so jammed 
and consolidated, in the few years between 1785 and 1812, that it could 
not be reopened, even by a steam force the vastness of which may be 
guessed at from the vastness of the area which it had shaken for two 
years. So, when the eruption was over, it was found that the old crater-
lake, incredible as it may seem, remained undisturbed, so far as has been 
ascertained; but close to it, and separated only by a knife-edge of rock 
some 700 feet in height, and so narrow that, as I was assured by one who 
had seen it, it is dangerous to crawl along it, a second crater, nearly as 
large as the first, had been blasted out, the bottom of which, in like 
manner, was afterward filled with water. 

"I regretted much that I could not visit it. Three points I longed to 
ascertain carefully--the relative heights of the water in the two craters; 
the height and nature of the spot where the lava stream issued; and, 
lastly, if possible, the actual causes of the locally famous Rabacca, or 
'Dry River,' one of the largest streams in the island, which was swallowed 
up during the eruption, at a short distance from its source, leaving its 
bed an arid gully to this day. But it could not be, and I owe what little 
I know of the summit of the soufriere principally to a most intelligent 
and gentleman-like young Wesleyan minister, whose name has escaped me. He 
described vividly, as we stood together on the deck, looking up at the 
volcano, the awful beauty of the twin lakes, and of the clouds which, for 
months together, whirl in and out of the cups in fantastic shapes before 
the eddies of the trade wind. 

BLACK SUNDAY AT BARBADOS 

"The day after the explosion, 'Black Sunday,' gave a proof of, though no 
measure of, the enormous force which had been exerted. Eighty miles to 
windward lies Barbados. All Saturday a heavy cannonading had been heard to 
the eastward. The English and French fleets were surely engaged. The 
soldiers were called out; the batteries manned; but the cannonade died 
away, and all went to bed in wonder. On the 1st of May the clocks struck 
six, but the sun did not, as usual in the tropics, answer to the call. The 
darkness was still intense, and grew more intense as the morning wore on. 
A slow and silent rain of impalpable dust was falling over the whole 
island. The negroes rushed shrieking into the streets. Surely the last day 
was come. The white folk caught (and little blame to them) the panic, and 
some began to pray who had not prayed for years. The pious and the 
educated (and there were plenty of both in Barbados) were not proof 
against the infection. Old letters describe the scene in the churches that 
morning as hideous-- prayers, sobs, and cries, in Stygian darkness, from 
trembling crowds. And still the darkness continued and the dust fell. 

INCIDENTS AT BARBADOS 

"I have a letter written by one long since dead, who had at least powers 
of description of no common order, telling how, when he tried to go out of 
his house upon the east coast, he could not find the trees on his own lawn 
save by feeling for their stems. He stood amazed not only in utter 
darkness, but in utter silence; for the trade-wind had fallen dead, the 
everlasting roar of the surf was gone, and the only noise was the crashing 
of branches, snapped by the weight of the clammy dust. He went in again, 
and waited. About one o'clock the veil began to lift; a lurid sunlight 
stared in from the horizon, but all was black overhead. Gradually the dust 
drifted away; the island saw the sun once more, and saw itself inches deep 
in black, and in this case fertilizing, dust. The trade-wind blew suddenly 
once more out of the clear east, and the surf roared again along the 
shore. 

"Meanwhile a heavy earthquake-wave had struck part at least of the shores 
of Barbados. The gentleman on the east coast, going out, found traces of 
the sea, and boats and logs washed up some ten to twenty feet above high-
tide mark; a convulsion which seemed to have gone unmarked during the 
general dismay. 

"One man at least, an old friend of John Hunter, Sir Joseph Banks and 
others their compeers, was above the dismay, and the superstitious panic 
which accompanied it. Finding it still dark when he rose to dress, he 
opened (so the story used to run) his window; found it stick, and felt 
upon the sill a coat of soft powder. "The volcano in St. Vincent has 
broken out at last,' said the wise man, 'and this is the dust of it.' So 
he quieted his household and his negroes, lighted his candles, and went to 
his scientific books, in that delight, mingled with an awe not the less 
deep, because it is rational and self-possessed, with which he, like the 
other men of science, looked at the wonders of this wondrous world." 



CHAPTER XXX. 
SUBMARINE VOLCANOES AND THEIR WORK OF ISLAND BUILDING

In November, 1867, a volcano suddenly began to show signs of activity 
beneath the deep sea of the Pacific Ocean. There are some islands nearly 
two thousands miles to the east of Australia called the Navigator's Group, 
in which there had been no history of an eruption, nor had such an event 
been handed down by tradition. Most of the islands in the Pacific Ocean 
are old volcanoes, or are made up of rocks cast forth from extinct burning 
mountains. They rise up like peaks through the great depths of the ocean, 
and the top, which just appears above the sea-level, is generally 
encircled by a growth of coral. Hence they are termed coral islands. These 
islands every now and then rise higher than the sea-level, owing to some 
deep upheaving force, and then the coral is lifted up above the water, and 
become a solid rock. But occasionally the reverse of this takes place, and 
the islands begin to sink into the sea, owing to a force which causes the 
base of the submarine mountain to become depressed. Sometimes they 
disappear. All this shows that some great disturbing forces are in action 
at the bottom of the sea, and just within the earth's crust, and that they 
are of a volcanic nature. 

For some time before the eruption in question, earthquakes shook the 
surrounding islands of the Navigator's Group, and caused great alarm, and 
when the trembling of the earth was very great, the sea began to be 
agitated near one of the islands, and vast circles of disturbed water were 
formed. Soon the water began to be forced upwards, and dead fish were seen 
floating about. After a while, steam rushed forth, and jets of mud and 
volcanic sand. Moreover, when the steam began to rush up out of the water, 
the violence of the general agitation of the land and of the surface of 
the sea increased. 

AN ERUPTION DESCRIBED 

When the eruption was at its height vast columns of mud and masses of 
stone rushed into the air to a height of 2,000 feet, and the fearful crash 
of masses of rock hurled upwards and coming in collision with others which 
were falling attested the great volume of ejected matter which accumulated 
in the bed of the ocean, although no trace of a volcano could be seen 
above the surface of the sea. Similar submarine volcanic action has been 
observed in the Atlantic Ocean, and crews of ships have reported that they 
have seen in different places sulphurous smoke, flame, jets of water, and 
steam, rising up from the sea, or they have observed the waters greatly 
discolored and in a state of violent agitation, as if boiling in large 
circles. 

New shoals have also been encountered, or a reef of rocks just emerging 
above the surface, where previously there was always supposed to have been 
deep water. On some few occasions, the gradual building up of an island by 
submarine volcanoes has been observed, as that of Sabrina in 1181, off St. 
Michael's, in the Azores. The throwing up of ashes in this case, and the 
formation of a conical hill 300 feet high, with a crater out of which 
spouted lava and steam, took place very rapidly. But the waves had the 
best of it, and finally washed Sabrina into the depths of the ocean. 
Previous eruptions in the same part of the sea were recorded as having 
happened in 1691 and 1720. 

In 1831, a submarine volcanic eruption occurred in the Mediterranean Sea, 
between Sicily and that part of the African coast where Carthage formerly 
stood. A few years before, Captain Smyth had sounded the spot in a survey 
of the sea ordered by Government, and he found the sea-bottom to be under 
500 feet of water. On June 28, about a fortnight before the eruption was 
visible, Sir Pulteney Malcom, in passing over the spot in his ship, felt 
the shock of an earthquake as if he had struck on a sandbank, and the same 
shocks were felt on the west coast of Sicily, in a direction from south-
west to north-east. 

BUILDING UP OF AN ISLAND BY SUBMARINE VOLCANOES 

About July 10, the captain of a Sicilian vessel reported that as he passed 
near the place he saw a column of water like a waterspout, sixty feet 
high, and 800 yards in circumference, rising from the sea, and soon after 
a dense rush of steam in its place, which ascended to the height of 1,800 
feet. The same captain, on his return eighteen days after, found a small 
island twelve feet high, with a crater in its centre, throwing forth 
volcanic matter and immense columns of vapor, the sea around being covered 
with floating cinders and dead fish. The eruption continued with great 
violence to the end of the same month. By the end of the month the island 
grew to ninety feet in height, and measured three-quarters of a mile 
round. By August 4th it became 200 feet high and three miles in 
circumference; after which it began to diminish in size by the action of 
the waves. Towards the end of October the island was levelled nearly to 
the surface of the sea. 

Naval officers and foreign ministers alike took an absorbing interest in 
this new island. The strong national thirst for territory manifested 
itself and eager mariners waited only till the new land should be cool 
enough to set foot on to strive who should be first to plant there his 
country's flag. Names in abundance were given it by successive observers,--
Nerita, Sciacca, Fernandina, Julia, Hotham, Corrao, and Graham. The last 
holds good in English speech, and as Graham's Island it is known in books 
to- day, though the sea took back what it had given, leaving but a shoal 
of cinders and sand. 

The Bay of Santorin, in the island of that name, which lies immediately to 
the north of Crete, has long been noted for its submarine volcanoes. 
According to one account, indeed, the whole island was at a remote period 
raised from the bottom of the sea; but this is questionable. It is, with 
more reason, supposed that the bay is the site of an ancient crater, which 
was situated on the summit of a volcanic cone that subsequently fell in. 
Certain it is that islands have from time to time been thrown up by 
volcanic forces from the bottom of the sea within this bay, and that some 
of them have remained, while others have sunk again. 

HOW AN ISLAND GREW 

Of the existing islands, some were thrown up shortly before the beginning 
of the Christian era; in particular, one called the Great Cammeni, which, 
however, received a considerable accession to its size by a fresh eruption 
in A. D. 726. The islet nearest Santorin was raised in 1573, and was named 
the Little Cammeni; and in 1707 there was added, between the other two, a 
third, which is now called the Black Island. This made its appearance 
above water on the 23rd of May, 1707, and was first mistaken for a wreck; 
but some sailors, who landed on it, found it to be a mass of rock; 
consisting of a very white soft stone, to which were adhering quantities 
of fresh oysters. While they were collecting these, a violent shaking of 
the ground scared them away. 

During several weeks the island gradually increased in volume; but in 
July, at a distance of about sixty paces from the new islet, there was 
thrown up a chain of black calcined rocks, followed by volumes of thick 
black smoke, having a sulphurous smell. A few days thereafter the water 
all around the spot became hot, and many dead fishes were thrown up. Then, 
with loud subterraneous noises, flames arose, and fresh quantities of 
stones and other substances were ejected, until the chain of black rocks 
became united to the first islet that had appeared. This eruption 
continued for a long time, there being thrown out quantities of ashes and 
pumice, which covered the island of Santorin and the surface of the sea--
some being drifted to the coasts of Asia Minor and the Dardanelles. The 
activity of this miniature volcano was prolonged, with greater or less 
energy, for about ten years. 

In 1866 similar phenomena took place in the Bay of Santorin, beginning 
with underground sounds and slight shocks of earthquake, which were 
followed by the appearance of flames on the surface of the sea. Soon after 
there arose, out of a dense smoke, a small islet, which gradually 
increased until in a week's time it was 60 feet high, 200 long and 90 
wide. The people of Santorin named it "George," in honor of the King of 
Greece. In another week it joined and became continuous with the Little 
Cammeni. The detonations increased in loudness, and large quantities of 
incandescent stones were thrown up from the crater. 

About the same time, at the distance of nearly 150 feet from the coast, to 
the westward of a point called Cape Phlego, there rose from the sea 
another island, to which was given the name of Aphroessa. It sank and 
reappeared several times before it established itself above water. The 
detonations and ejection of incandescent lava and stones continued at 
intervals during three weeks. From the crater of the islet George, which 
attained a height of 150 feet, some stones several cubic yards in bulk 
were projected to a great distance. One of them falling on board of a 
merchant vessel, killed the captain and set fire to the ship. 

By the 10th of March the eruptions had partially subsided, but were then 
renewed, and a third island, which was named Reka, rose alongside of 
Aphroessa. They were at first separated by a channel sixty feet deep; but 
in three days this was filled up, and the two islets became united. 

Reference may properly be made here to Monte Nuovo and Jorullo, not that 
they appertain to the present subject, but that they form examples of the 
action of similar forces, in the one instance exerted on a lake bottom, in 
the other on dry land, each yielding permanent volcanic elevations in 
every respect analogous to those which rise as islands from the bottom of 
the sea. 

IN THE ICELANDIC SEAS 

Off the coast of Iceland islands have appeared during several of the 
volcanic eruptions which that remote dependency of Denmark has manifested, 
and at various periods in Iceland's history the sea has been covered with 
pumice and other debris, which tell their own tale of what has been going 
on, without being in sufficient quantity to reach the surface in the form 
of an island mass. The sea off Reykjanes--Smoky Cape, as the name means--
has been a frequent scene of these submarine eruptions. In 1240, during 
what the Icelandic historians describe as the eighth outburst, a number of 
islets were formed, though most of them subsequently disappeared, only to 
have their places occupied by others born at a later date. In 1422 high 
rocks of considerable circumference appeared. In 1783, about a month 
before the eruption of Skaptar Jokull, a volcanic island named Nyoe, from 
which fire and smoke issued, was built up. But in time it vanished under 
the waves, all that remains of it to-day being a reef from five to thirty-
five fathoms below the sea-level. In 1830, after several long-continued 
eruptions of the usual character, another isle arose; while at the same 
time the skerries known as the Geirfuglaska disappeared, and with them 
vanished the great auks, or gare-fowls--birds now extinct--which up to 
that time had bred on them. At all events, though the auks could not well 
have been drowned, no traces of them were seen after the date mentioned. 
In July, 1884, an island again appeared about ten miles off Reykjanes; but 
it is already beginning to diminish in size, and may soon disappear. 

OFF THE COAST OF ALASKA 

Elsewhere in the region of the northern seas there are other instances of 
the influence of the submarine forces in raising up and lowering land. The 
coast of Alaska is a region of intense volcanic action. In 1795, during a 
period of volcanic activity in the craters of Makushina, on Unalaska, and 
in others on Umnak Island, a volume of smoke was seen to rise out of the 
sea about 42 miles to the north of Unalaska, and the next year it was 
followed by a heap of cindery material, from which arose flame and 
volcanic matter, the glow being visible over a radius of ten miles. In 
four years the island grew into a large cone, 3000 feet above the sea- 
level, and two or three miles in circumference. Two years later it was 
still so hot that when some hunters landed on it they found the soil too 
warm for walking. It was named Ionna Bogoslova (St. John the Theologian), 
by the Russians, Agashagok by the Aleuts, and is now known to the whites 
of that region as Bogosloff. Mr. Dall believes that it occupies the site 
of some rocks that existed there as long as tradition extends. 

There were additions to the cone up to the year 1823, when it became so 
quiescent as to be the favorite haunt of seals and sea- fowls, and, when 
the weather was favorable, was visited by native egg-hunters from 
Unalaska. During the summer of 1883 Bogosloff was again seen in eruption, 
as it was thought. However, on closely examining the neighborhood, it was 
found that the old island was undisturbed, but that there had been a fresh 
eruption, which had resulted in the extension of Bogosloff by the 
appearance of a cone and crater (Hague Volcano), 357 feet high, connected 
with the parent island by a low sand-spit, and situated in a spot where, 
the year before, the lead showed 800 fathoms of water. At the same time 
Augustin and two other previously quiet islands on the peninsula of Alaska 
began simultaneously to emit smoke, dust and ashes, while a reef running 
westward and formerly submerged became elevated to the sea surface. Other 
islands, of origin exactly similar to Bogosloff and those mentioned, are 
to be found in this region, notably Koniugi and Kasatochi, in the western 
Aleutians, and Pinnacle Island, near St. Matthew Island. Indeed, the 
volcano of Kliutchevsk, which rises to a height of over 15,000 feet, is 
really a volcanic island. 

A permanent addition was made to the Aleutian group of Islands by the 
action of a submarine volcano in 1806. This new island has the form of a 
volcanic peak, with several subsidiary cones. It is four geographical 
miles in circumference. In 1814 another arose out of the sea in the same 
archipelago, the cone of which attained a height of 3,000 feet; but at the 
end of a year it lost a portion of this elevation. 

In 1856, in the sea in the same neighborhood, Captain Newell, of the 
whaling bark Alice Fraser, witnessed a submarine eruption, which was also 
seen by the crews of several other vessels. There was no island formed on 
this occasion, but large jets of water were thrown up, and the sea was 
greatly agitated all around. Then followed volcanic smoke, and quantities 
of stones, ashes, and pumice; the two latter being scattered over the 
surface of the sea to a great distance. Loud thundering reports 
accompanied this eruption, and all the ships in the neighborhood felt 
concussions like those produced by an earthquake. These phenomena seem to 
have ended in the formation of some great submarine chasm, into which the 
waters rushed with extreme violence and a terrific roar. 

Occurrences similar to this last have been several times observed in a 
tract of open sea in the Atlantic, about half a degree south of the 
equator, and between 20 and 22 degrees of west longitude. Although 
quantities of volcanic dross have been from time to time thrown up to the 
surface in this region, no island has yet made its appearance above water. 

The events here described repeat on a far smaller scale similar ones which 
have occurred in remote ages in many parts of the ocean and left great 
island masses as the permanent effects of their work. We may instance the 
Hawaiian group, which is wholly of volcanic origin, with the exception of 
its minor coral additions, and represents a stupendous activity of 
underground agencies beneath the domain of Father Neptune. 

In part, as we have said elsewhere in this work, all oceanic islands, 
remote from those in the shoal bordering waters of the continents, have 
been of volcanic or coral formation, or more often a combination of the 
two. No sooner does an island mass appear above or near the surface of 
tropical waters than the minute coral animals--effective only by their 
myriads--begin their labors, building fringes of coral rock around the 
cindery heaps lifted from the ocean floor. The atolls of the Pacific--
circular or oval rings of coral with lagunes of sea-water within--have 
long been thought to be built on the rims of submarine volcanoes, rising 
to within a few hundred feet of the surface, much as coral reefs around 
actual islands. If the volcanic mass should subsequently subside, as it is 
likely to do, the minute ocean builders will continue their work--unless 
the subsidence be too rapid for their powers of production--and in this 
way ring-like islands of coral may in time rise from great depths of sea, 
their basis being the volcanic island which has sunk from near the surface 
far toward old ocean's primal floor. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 
MUD VOLCANOES, GEYSERS, AND HOT SPRINGS

Our usual impression of a volcano is indicated in the title of "burning 
mountain," so often employed, a great fire-spouting cone of volcanic 
debris, from which steam, lava, rock-masses, cinder- like fragments, and 
dust, often of extreme fineness, are flung high into the air or flow in 
river-like torrents of molten rock. This, no doubt, applies in the 
majority of cases, but the volcanic forces do not confine themselves to 
these magnificent displays of energy, nor are their products limited to 
those above specified. We have seen that mud is a not uncommon product, 
due to the mingling of water with volcanic dust, while water alone is 
occasionally emitted, of which we have a marked instance in the Volcan de 
Agua, of Guatemala, already mentioned. As regards mud flows, we may 
specially instance the first outflow from Mont Pelee, that by which the 
Guerin sugar works were overwhelmed. 

The imprisoned forces of the earth have still other modes of 
manifestation. A very frequent one of these, and the most destructive to 
human life of them all, is the earthquake. 

Minor manifestations of volcanic action may be seen in the geyser and the 
hot spring, the latter the most widely disseminated of all the resultant 
effects of the heated condition of the earth's interior. It is these 
displays of subterranean energy, differing from those usually termed 
volcanic, yet due to the same general causes, that we have next to 
consider. And it may be premised that their manifestations, while, except 
in the case of the earthquake, less violent, are no less interesting, 
especially as the minor displays are free from that peril to human life 
which renders the major ones so terrible. 

While the largest volcanoes at times pour out rivers of liquid mud, there 
are volcanoes from which nothing is ever ejected but mud and water, the 
latter being generally salt. From this circumstance they are sometimes 
called salses, but they are more generally termed mud-volcanoes. Some 
varieties of them throw out little else than gases of different sorts, and 
these are called air-volcanoes. 

THE GREAT MUD VOLCANO OF SICILY 

One of the best known mud-volcanoes is at Macaluba, near Girgenti, in 
Sicily. It consists of several conical mounds, varying from time to time 
in their form and height, which ranges from eight to thirty feet. From 
orifices on the tops of these mounds there are thrown out sometimes jets 
of warmish water and mud mixed with bitumen, sometimes bubbles of gas, 
chiefly carbonic acid and carburetted hydrogen, occasionally pure 
nitrogen. The mud ejected has often a strong sulphurous smell. The jets in 
general ascend only to a moderate height; but occasionally they are thrown 
up with great violence, attaining a height of about 200 feet. In 1777 
there was ejected an immense column, consisting of mud strongly 
impregnated with sulphur and mixed with naphtha and stones, accompanied 
also by quantities of sulphurous vapors. This mud- volcano is known to 
have been in action for fifteen centuries. 

Very recently a small mud-volcano has been formed on the flanks of Mount 
Etna. It began with the throwing up of jets of boiling water, mixed with 
petroleum and mud, great quantities of gas bubbling up at the same time. 
In several of the valleys of Iceland there are similar phenomena, the 
boiling water and mud being thrown up in jets to the height of fifteen 
feet and upwards, the mud accumulating around the orifices whence the jets 
arise. 

A mud-volcano named Korabetoff, in the Crimea, presents phenomena more 
akin to those of the igneous volcanoes of South America. There was an 
eruption from this mountain on the 6th of August, 1853. It began by 
throwing up from the summit a column of fire and smoke, which ascended to 
a great height. This continued for five or six minutes, and was followed 
at short intervals by two similar eruptions. There was then ejected with a 
hissing noise a quantity of black fetid mud, which was so hot as to scorch 
the grass on the edges of the stream. The mud continued to pour out for 
three hours, covering a wide space at the mountain's base. The mud- 
volcanoes on the coast of Beloochistan are very numerous, and extend over 
an area of nearly a thousand square miles. Their action resembles that at 
Macaluba. 

THE MUD VOLCANO OF JAVA 

There is a mud volcano in Java which is of interest as somewhat resembling 
the geyser in its mode of operation and apparently due to similar 
agencies. It is thus described by Dr. Horsfield:-- 

"On approaching it from a distance, it is first discovered by a large 
volume of smoke, rising and disappearing at intervals of a few seconds, 
resembling the vapors rising from a violent surf. A loud noise is heard, 
like that of distant thunder. Having advanced so near that the vision was 
no longer impeded by the smoke, a large hemispherical mass was observed, 
consisting of black earth mixed with water, about sixteen feet in 
diameter, rising to the height of twenty or thirty feet in a perfectly 
regular manner, and as if it were pushed up by a force beneath, which 
suddenly exploded with a loud noise, and scattered about a volume of black 
mud in every direction. After an interval of two or three, or sometimes 
four or five seconds, the hemispherical body of mud rose and exploded 
again. In the manner stated this volcanic ebullition goes on without 
interruption, throwing up a globular body of mud, and dispersing it with 
violence through the neighboring plain. The spot where the ebullition 
occurs is nearly circular, and perfectly level. It is covered only with 
the earthy particles, impregnated with salt water, which are thrown up 
from below. The circumference may be estimated at about half an English 
mile. In order to conduct the salt water to the circumference, small 
passages or gutters are made in the loose muddy earth, which lead to the 
borders, where it is collected in holes dug in the ground for the purpose 
of evaporation." 

The mud has a strong, pungent, sulphurous smell, resembling that of 
mineral oil, and is hotter than the surrounding atmosphere. During the 
rainy season the explosions increase in violence. 

There are submarine mud volcanoes as well as those of igneous kind. In 
1814 one of this character broke out in the Sea of Azof, beginning with 
flame and black smoke, accompanied by earth and stones, which were flung 
to a great height. Ten of these explosions occurred, and, after a period 
of rest, others were heard during the night. The next morning there was 
visible above the water an island of mud some ten feet high. A very 
similar occurrence took place in 1827, near Baku, in the Caspian sea. This 
began with a flaming display and the ejection of great fragments of rock. 
An eruption of mud succeeded. A set of small volcanoes discovered by 
Humboldt in Turbaco, in South America, confined their emissions almost 
wholly to gases, chiefly nitrogen. 

There is a close connection in character between mud volcanoes and those 
intermittent boiling springs named geysers. A good many of the mud 
volcanoes throw out jets of boiling water along with the mud; but in the 
case of the geysers, the boiling water is ejected alone, without any 
visible impregnation, though some mineral in solution, as silica, 
carbonate of lime, or sulphur, is usually present. 

THE GEYSER IS A WATER VOLCANO 

The phenomenon of the geyser serves in a measure to support the theory 
that steam is an important agent in volcanic action. A geyser, in fact, 
may be designated as a water volcano, since it throws up water only. It 
comprises a cone or mound, usually only a few feet high. In the middle of 
this is a crater-like opening with a passage leading down into the earth. 
As in the case of the volcano, the geyser cone is built up by its own 
action. In the boiling water which is ejected there is dissolved a certain 
amount of silica. As the water falls and cools this mineral is deposited, 
gradually building up a cup-like elevation. The basin of the geyser is 
generally full of clear water, with a little steam rising from its 
surface; but at intervals an eruption takes place, sometimes at regular 
periods, but more often at irregular intervals. 

Among the largest and best known geysers in the world are those of 
Iceland, chief among them being the Great Geyser. Silica is the mineral 
with which the waters of this fountain are impregnated, and the substance 
which they deposit, as they slowly evaporate, is named siliceous sinter. 
Of this material is composed the mound, six or seven feet high, on which 
the spring is situated. On the top of the mound is a large oval basin, 
about three feet in depth, measuring in its larger diameter about fifty-
six, and in its shorter about forty-six feet. The centre of this basin is 
occupied by a circular well about ten feet in diameter, and between 
seventy and eighty feet deep. 

Out of the central well springs a jet of boiling water, at intervals of 
six or seven hours. When the fountain is at rest, both the basin and the 
well appear quite empty, and no steam is seen. But on the approach of the 
moment for action, the water rises in the well, till it flows over into 
the basin. Then loud subterranean explosions are heard, and the ground all 
round is violently shaken. 

Instantly, and with immense force, a steaming jet of boiling water, of the 
full width of the well, springs up and ascends to a great height in the 
air. The top of this large column of water is enveloped in vast clouds of 
steam, which diffuse themselves through the air, rendering it misty. These 
jets succeed each other with great rapidity to the number of sixteen or 
eighteen, the period of action of the fountain being about five minutes. 
The last of the jets generally ascends to the greatest height, usually to 
about 100, but sometimes to 150 feet; on one occasion it rose to the great 
height of 212 feet. Having ejected this great column of water, the action 
ceases, and the water that had filled the basin sinks down into the well. 
There it remains till the time for the next eruption, when the same 
phenomena are repeated. It has been found that, by throwing large stones 
into the well, the period of the eruption may be hastened, while the 
loudness of the explosions and the violence of the fountain effect are 
increased, the stones being at the same time ejected with great force. 

ERUPTION CAN BE INDUCED BY ARTIFICIAL MEANS 

Geysers are found all over the island, presenting various peculiarities. 
In the case of one of the smaller ones, which is called Strokr, or the 
Churn, an eruption can be induced by artificial means. A barrow-load of 
sods is thrown into the crater of the geyser, with the effect of causing 
an eruption. The sensitiveness of Strokr is due to its peculiar form. An 
observer states that, "The bore is eight feet in diameter at the top, and 
forty-four feet deep. Below twenty-seven feet it contracts to nineteen 
inches, so that the turf thrown in completely chokes it. Steam collects 
below; a foaming scum covers the surface of the water, and in a quarter of 
an hour it surges up the pipe. The fountain then begins playing, sending 
its bundles of jets rather higher than those of the Great Geyser, flinging 
up the clods of turf which have been its obstruction like a number of 
rockets. This magnificent display continues for a quarter of an hour or 
twenty minutes. The erupted water flows back into the pipe from the curved 
sides of the bowl. This occasions a succession of bursts, the last 
expiring effort, very generally, being the most magnificent. Strokr gives 
no warning thumps, like the Great Geyser, and there is not the same 
roaring of steam accompanying the outbreak of the water." 

The same author thus describes an eruption of the Great Geyser, which 
occurred about two o'clock in the morning: "A violent concussion of the 
ground brought me and my companions to our feet. We rushed out of the tent 
in every condition of dishabille and were in time to see Geyser put forth 
his full strength. Five strokes underground were the signal, then an 
overflow, wetting every side of the mound. Presently a dome of water rose 
in the centre of the basin and fell again, immediately to be followed by a 
fresh bell, which sprang into the air fully forty feet high, accompanied 
by a roaring burst of steam. Instantly the fountain began to play with the 
utmost violence, a column rushing up to the height of ninety or one 
hundred feet against the gray night sky, with mighty volumes of white 
steam cloud rolling after it and swept off by the breeze to fall in 
torrents of hot rain. Jets and lines of water tore their way through the 
clouds, or leaped high above its domed mass. The earth trembled and 
throbbed during the explosion, then the column sank, started up again, 
dropped once more, and seemed to be sucked back into the earth. We ran to 
the basin, which was left dry, and looked down the bore at the water, 
which was bubbling at the depth of six feet." 

In the case of Strokr, the cause of this eruption is not difficult to 
understand. The narrow part of the channel is choked up by the turf and 
the steam, and prevented from escaping. Finally it gains such force as to 
drive out the obstacle with a violent explosion, just as a bottle of 
fermenting liquor may blow out the cork and discharge some of its 
contents. 

Geysers are somewhat abundant phenomena, existing in many parts of the 
earth, while striking examples of them are found in the widely separated 
regions of Iceland, New Zealand, Japan and the western United States. In 
the volcanic region of New Zealand geysers and their associated hot 
springs are abundant. It was to their action that we owed the famous white 
and pink terraces and the warm lake of Rotomahana which were ruined by the 
destructive eruption of Mount Tarawera, already described. 

GEYSERS OF THE UNITED STATES 

The United States is abundantly supplied with hot springs, but geysers, 
outside of the Yellowstone region, are found only in California and 
Nevada. Those of California exist chiefly in Napa Valley, north of San 
Francisco, in a canon or defile. Their waters are impregnated not with 
silica, but with sulphur, and they thus approach more nearly in their 
character to mud-volcanoes, whose ejections are, in like manner, much 
impregnated with that substance. They are also, like them, collected in 
groups, there being no less than one hundred openings within a space of 
flat ground a mile square. Owing to their number and proximity, their 
individual energy is nothing like so violent as that of the geysers of 
Iceland. Their jets seldom rise higher than 20 or 30 feet; but so great a 
number playing within so confined a space produces an imposing effect. The 
jets of boiling water issue with a loud noise from little conical mounds, 
around which the ground is merely a crust of sulphur. When this crust is 
penetrated, the boiling water may be seen underneath. The rocks in the 
neighborhood of these fountains are all corroded by the action of the 
sulphurous vapors. Nevertheless, within a distance of not more than 50 
feet from them, trees grow without injury to their health. 

Few of these fountains, however, are regular geysers, most of them 
discharging only steam. From the Steamboat Geyser this ascends to a height 
of from 50 to 100 feet, with a roar like that of the escape from a 
steamboat boiler. Associated with the geysers are numerous hot springs, 
some clear, some turbid, and variously impregnated with iron, sulphur or 
alum. In Nevada the Steamboat Springs, as they are designated, exist in 
Washoe Valley, east of the Virginian range. They come nearer in character 
to the Yellowstone geysers, their waters depositing true geyserite, or 
silicious concretions. The Volcano Springs, in Lauder County, are also 
true geysers, though of small importance. The ground here is so thickly 
perforated by holes from which steam escapes that it looks like a 
cullender. 

THE YELLOWSTONE GEYSERS 

The most remarkable geyser country in the world, alike for the size and 
the number of its spouting fountains, is the Yellowstone region in the 
northwest part of the Territory of Wyoming, in the United States, which, 
by a special act of Congress, has been reserved as the Yellowstone 
National Park, exempt from settlement, purchase or pre-emption. Here 
nearly every form of geyser and unintermittent hot spring occurs, with 
deposits of various kinds, silicious, calcareous, etc. Of the hot springs, 
Dr. Peale enumerates 2,195, and considers that within the limits of the 
park--which is about 54 miles by 62 miles, and includes 3,312 square 
miles--as many as 3,000 actually exist. The same geologist notes the 
existence of 71 geysers in the area mentioned, though some of the number 
are only inferred to be spouting springs from the form of their basins and 
the character of the surrounding deposits. Of this vast collection of 
still and eruptive springs, between which there seems every gradation, 
those which do not send water into the air are, owing to the magnificent 
cascades which they form, often quite as remarkable as those which take 
the shape of geysers. The more striking of the latter may, however, be 
briefly mentioned. 

In the Gibbon Basin is a geyser of late origin. In 1878 this consisted of 
two steam holes, roaring on the side of a hill, that looked as if they had 
recently burst through the surface; and the gully leading towards the 
ravine was at that date filled with sand, which appeared to have been 
poured out during an eruption. Dead trees stood on the line of this sand 
floor, and others, with their bark still remaining, and even with their 
foliage not lost, were uprooted hard by, everything indicating that the 
"steamboat vent," as it was called, was of recent formation. In 1875 it 
had no existence, but in 1879 the spouting spring--which first opened, it 
is believed, on the 11th of August in the preceding year--had "settled 
down to business as a very powerful flowing geyser," with a double period; 
one eruption occurring every half hour, and projecting water to the height 
of 30 feet; the main eruption occurring every six or seven days, with long 
continued action, and a column of nearly 100 feet. 

The New Geyser in the same basin is also of quite recent origin. It 
consists of two fissures in the rock, in which the water boils vigorously. 
But there is no mound, and the rocks of the fissure are just beginning to 
get a coating of the silicious geyserite deposited from the water, so that 
it cannot long have been spouting. Again, in the Grotto Geyser--in the 
Upper Geyser Basin of Fire Hole River--the main or larger crater is 
hollowed into fantastic arches, beneath which are the grotto-like cavities 
from which it is named, which act as lateral orifices for the escape of 
water during an eruption. It plays several times in the course of the 
twenty-four hours, and sends a column of water sixty feet high, the 
eruption lasting an hour. As yet, however, the force of the water has not 
been sufficient, or of sufficiently long duration, to break through the 
arches covering the basin or crater. The Excelsior--claimed to be the 
largest of its order, which sent water nearly 300 feet into the air at 
intervals of about five hours, and of such volume as to wash away bridges 
over small streams below-- was not, until comparatively recent years, 
known as a specially powerful geyser. But if it had for a time waned in 
importance, its immense crater, 330 feet in length and 200 feet at the 
widest part, shows that at a still earlier date it was a gigantic 
fountain. In this deep pit, when the breeze wafted aside the clouds of 
steam constantly arising from its surface, the water could be seen 
seething 15 or 20 feet below the surrounding level. Yet into the cauldron 
of boiling water a little stream of cold water, from the melting snow of 
the uplands, ran unceasingly. Since 1888 this great geyser has been 
inactive. 

The Castle Geyser is so named on account of the fancied resemblance which 
its mound of white and grey deposit presents to the ruins of a feudal 
keep, the crater itself being placed on a cone or turret, which has a 
somewhat imposing appearance compared with the other geysers in the 
neighborhood. It throws a column usually about fifty or sixty feet high, 
at intervals of two or three hours, but sometimes the discharge shoots up 
much higher. 

The Giant, in the Upper Geyser Basin, has a peculiar crater, which has 
been likened to the stump of a hollow sycamore tree of gigantic 
proportions, whose top has been wrenched off by a storm. This curious cup 
is broken down at one side, as though it had been torn away during an 
eruption of more than ordinary violence, and on this side the visitor is 
able to look into the crater, if he can contrive to avoid the jets which 
are constantly spouted from it. The periods of rest which it takes are 
varied, an eruption often not occurring for several days at a time; yet 
when it breaks out it continues playing for more than three hours, with a 
volume of water reaching a height of from 130 to 140 feet. In the interval 
little spouts are constantly in progess. Mr. Stanley saw one eruption 
which he calculated to have shot a column of water to the height of more 
than 200 feet. At first it seemed as though the geyser was only making a 
feint, the discharge which preceded the great one being merely repeated 
several times, followed by a cessation both of the rumbling noises and of 
the ejection of water. But soon, after a premonitory cloud of steam, the 
geyser began to work in earnest, the column discharged rising higher and 
higher, until it reached the altitude mentioned. 

"At first it appeared to labor in raising the immense volume, which seemed 
loath to start on its heavenward tour; but it was with perfect ease that 
the stupendous column was held to its place, the water breaking into jets 
and returning in glittering showers to the basin. The steam ascended in 
dense volumes for thousands of feet, when it was freighted on the wings of 
the winds and borne away in clouds. The fearful rumble and confusion 
attending it were as the sound of distant artillery, the rushing of many 
horses to battle, or the roar of a fearful tornado. It commenced to act at 
2 P. M., and continued for an hour and a half, the latter part of which it 
emitted little else than steam, rushing upward from its chambers below, of 
which, if controlled, there was enough to run an engine of wonderful 
power. The waving to and fro of such a gigantic fountain, when the column 
is at its height, 

'Tinselled o'er in robes of varying hues,' 

and glistening in the bright sunlight, which adorns it with the glowing 
colors of many a gorgeous rainbow, affords a spectacle so wonderful and 
grandly magnificent, so overwhelming to the mind, that the ablest attempt 
at description gives the reader who has never witnessed such a display but 
a feeble idea of its glory." 

A DESCRIPTION OF THE GEYSER AT WORK 

The only other geysers in this remarkable geyserland which we can spare 
room to notice are those known as the Giantess, the Beehive, and the 
Grand. The Giantess sends a column of water to the height of 250 feet. An 
eruption is usually divided into three periods-- two preliminary efforts 
and a final one, divided from each other by intervals of between one and 
two hours, while the intervals of discharge are very long. Sometimes it 
does not play for several weeks. The Beehive, which is 400 feet from the 
Giantess, gets its name from the peculiar beehive-like cone which it has 
formed. The eruption is also almost unique. It is heralded by a slight 
escape of steam, which is followed by a column of steam and water, 
shooting to the height of over 200 feet. The column is somewhat fan-
shaped, but it does not fall in rain, the spray being evaporated and 
carried off as steam--if, indeed, there is not more steam than water in 
the column. The duration of the discharge is between four and five 
minutes, and the interval between two eruptions from twenty-one to twenty-
five hours. 

The Grand is one of the most important in the Upper Geyser basin. Yet, 
unlike the Grotto, the Giant, or the Old Faithful,--so called from its 
frequent and regular eruptions--it has no raised cone or crater, and a 
much less cavernous bowl than the Giantess and other geysers. The column 
discharged ascends to the height of from eighty to two hundred feet, and 
the eruptions last from fifteen minutes to three-quarters of an hour, with 
intervals on an average of from seven to twenty hours. This fountain is 
apparently very irregular in its action, though it is just possible that 
when the Yellowstone geysers have been more consecutively studied, it will 
be found that these seeming irregularities depend on the varying supplies 
of water at different times of the year. 

THE MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS 

The marvellous phenomena of the Yellowstone region are not confined to 
geyser action, hot springs of steady flow being, as above stated, 
exceedingly numerous. Of these the most striking are those known as the 
Mammoth Hot Springs, whose waters find their way through underground 
passages, finally flowing from an opening as the "Boiling River," which 
empties into the Gardiner River. 

These springs are marvels of beauty. Their terraced bowls, adorned with 
delicate fret-work, are among the finest specimens of Nature's handiwork 
in the world, and the colored waters themselves are startling in their 
brilliancy. Red, pink, black, canary, green, saffron, blue, chocolate, and 
all their intermediate gradations are found here in exquisite harmony. The 
springs rise in terraces of various heights and widths, having 
intermingled with their delicate shades chalk-like cliffs, soft and 
crumbly, these latter being the remains of springs from which the life and 
beauty have departed. The great spring is the largest in the country, the 
water flowing through three openings into a basin forty feet long by 
twenty-five feet wide. From this the hot mineral waters drip over into 
lower basins, of gracefully curved and scalloped outline, the minerals 
deposited on the lips of the basin forming stalagmites of variegated hue, 
yielding a brilliant and beautiful effect. The terraced basins bear a 
close resemblance to the former New Zealand pink and white terraces, and 
since the annihilation of the latter are the most charming examples in 
existence of this rare form of Nature's artistic handiwork.