Our national parks . e rims and curbs about them,always excite admiring attention; so also doesthe play of the waters from which they are de-posited. The various minerals in them are richin colors, and these are greatly heightened by asmooth, silky growth of brilliantly colored con-fervse which lines many of the pools and chan-nels and terraces. No bed of flower-bloom ismore exquisite than these myriads of minuteplants, visible only in mass, growing in the hotwaters. Most of the spring borders are low anddaintily scalloped, crenelated, and beaded withsinter pearls. Some of the geyser craters a
Our national parks . e rims and curbs about them,always excite admiring attention; so also doesthe play of the waters from which they are de-posited. The various minerals in them are richin colors, and these are greatly heightened by asmooth, silky growth of brilliantly colored con-fervse which lines many of the pools and chan-nels and terraces. No bed of flower-bloom ismore exquisite than these myriads of minuteplants, visible only in mass, growing in the hotwaters. Most of the spring borders are low anddaintily scalloped, crenelated, and beaded withsinter pearls. Some of the geyser craters aremassive and picturesque, like ruined castles orold burned-out sequoia stumps, and are adornedon a grand scale with outbulging, cauliflower-like formations. From these as centres the silexpavements slope gently away in thin, crusty,overlapping layers, slightly interrupted in someplaces by low terraces. Or, as in the case of theMammoth Hot Springs, at the north end of thepark, where the building waters issue from the. THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK 47 side of a steep hill, the deposits form a successionof hio[:her and broader terraces of white traver-tine tinged with purple, like the famous PinkTerrace at Rotomahana, New Zealand, drapedin front with clustering stalactites, each terracehaving a pool of indescribably beautiful waterupon it in a basin with a raised rim that glistenswith confervae, — the whole, when viewed at adistance of a mile or two, looking like a broad,massive cascade pouring over shelving rocks insnowy purpled foam. The stones of this divine masonry, invisibleparticles of lime or silex, mined in quarries noeye has seen, go to their appointed places ingentle, tinkling, transparent currents or throughthe dashing turmoil of floods, as surely guidedas the sap of plants streaming into bole andbranch, leaf and flower. And thus from cen-tury to century this beauty-work has gone on andis going on. Passing though many a mile of pine andspruce woods, toward the centre
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookidournationalparks1909muir
