. Annual report. 1st-12th, 1867-1878. Geology. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 123 sending out huge masses of steam, causing a general stampede of our company, driving us some distance from our point of observation. When within about 40 feet of the surface, it became stationary, and we returned to look down upon it. It was foaming and surging at a terrible rate, occasionally emitting small jets of hot water nearly to the mouth of the orifice. All at once it seemed seized with a fearful spasm, and rose with incredible rapidity, hardly affording us time to flee to a safe distance, when it
. Annual report. 1st-12th, 1867-1878. Geology. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 123 sending out huge masses of steam, causing a general stampede of our company, driving us some distance from our point of observation. When within about 40 feet of the surface, it became stationary, and we returned to look down upon it. It was foaming and surging at a terrible rate, occasionally emitting small jets of hot water nearly to the mouth of the orifice. All at once it seemed seized with a fearful spasm, and rose with incredible rapidity, hardly affording us time to flee to a safe distance, when it burst from the orifice with terrific momentum, rising in a column the full size of this immense aperture to the height of 60 feet 5 and through and out of the apex of this vast aqueous mass, five or six lesser jets or round columns of water, varying in size from 6 to 15 inches in diameter, were projected to the marvelous height of 250 feet. These lesser jets, so much higher than the main column, and shooting through it, doubtless proceed from auxiliary pipes leading into the principal orifice near the bottom, where the explo- sive force is greater. If the theory that water by constant boiling be- comes explosive when freed from air be true, this theory rationally ac- counts for all irregularities in the eruptions of the geysers. Fig. THE GIANT , This grand eruption continued for twenty minutes, and was the most magnificent sight we ever witnessed. We were standing on the side of the geyser nearest the sun, the gleams of which filled the sparkling col- umn of water and spray with myriads of rainbows, whose arches were constantly changing—dipping and fluttering hither and thither, and disappearing only to be succeeded by others, again and again, amid the aqueous column, while the minute globules into which the spent jets were diffused when falling sparkled like a shower of diamonds, and around every shadow which the denser clouds of vapor, interrupting the sun's rays, cast
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