springs of less power. The boiling springs in this vicinity number nearly 700. Between this and the upper group are the Half-way Springs, one of which has a diameter of 250 feet with walls nearly twenty feet high. The water from this immense caldron constantly overflows, and the air is filled with steam which rises from its surface. Near by is the Excelsior Geyser, which is intermittent, but at the time of its outbreaks is very powerful.

The upper group, located in what is known as the Great Geyser Basin, ranks as the most powerful and magnificent collection of spouting springs in the world. It occupies a strip of land on the river banks, varying in width from half a mile to a mile, and extending several miles in length. The total area occupied by the group is about three square miles. It contains more than 400 boiling springs and numerous springs of lower temperature and less activity. Of these springs twenty-six are large and powerful geysers.

The Giant Geyser has a crater about ten feet in height, but one side has been broken down. The water is thrown from an orifice about five feet in diamcter to a height of from 150 to 200 feet. Its eruptions occur at distant and irregular intervals and but few have been noted. The Castle Geyser is also very powerful, sometimes throwing a column of water more than 200 feet high and continuing in action more than a quarter of an hour. Near by is the famous hot spring called Circe's Boudoir. The basin is as white as marble, while the water is of an intensely blue color, and perfectly transparent. The Giantess is a strong geyser with irregular but remarkably pow erful action. The basin is twenty-three by thirty-two feet and an immense volume of water is thrown from 60 to 200 feet in the air. The Grand Geyser differs from most of the others in having a depressed instead of an elevated basin. The orifice is four feet by two feet. An eruption occurs every twenty-four hours and the column of water is sometimes thrown to a height of 250 feet. The geyser which attracts the most attention is probably Old Faithful, which stands at the head of the valley and received its name from the regularity of its eruptions, which occur about once an hour. A column of water about six feet in diameter is thrown from 100 to 150 feet in the air. The period of activity is about five minutes. There are also many other interesting and important geysers in this vicinity, and several large groups in other portions of the Park, including a very beautiful collection near Shoshone Lake. Closely allied to them is the celebrated Mud Volcano, the most powerful of a large number of mud springs which appear near the Yellowstone River. The crater of this peculiar volcano is about twenty-five

feet across.

From the boiling mud, lying some thirty feet below the surface, dense clouds of steam constantly ascend. Occasionally there is a violent outburst and large quantities of mud are thrown high in the air. The largest river in the domain, and one of the most remarkable in the country, is the Yellowstone. It rises in a lake of the same name which lies in the south-eastern portion of the Park. The stream called the Upper Yellowstone, which supplies the lake, flows only a short distance, but the main river has a course of 1,300 miles, when it empties into the Missouri. The Yellowstone is navigable for about 300 miles. Along its entire course are beautiful scenes, and for long distances the views are mag

nificent beyond description. The falls and the Grand Cañon easily rank among the sublimest scenes of the world.

The famous falls of the Yellowstone are some fifteen miles below the lake. The river is about 150 feet wide at this point and flows quietly through a

beautiful valley until it almost reaches the brink of a precipice, down which it drops 112 feet. This cataract is known as the Upper Falls, and is remarkably beautiful. But the Lower Falls, a quarter of a mile beyond, are far more majestic. Between these falls the river becomes much wider and flows rapidly over a rocky bed until near the Lower Falls, when the channel is contracted and the water makes a terrific plunge of more than 300 feet. Although the body of water is much smaller and there is far less of the grand and overpowering in the scene, these falls are said, in point of beauty, to

greatly surpass those of Niagara. The foot of the falls is always covered with a heavy mist and the massive wall at the west is clothed with green and luxuriant vegetation for its entire height.

The Yellowstone Lake is a beautiful, and in point of outline, a very peculiar sheet of water. It is about twenty-two miles in length by twelve or fifteen miles in width and lies 7,738 feet above the sea level. With the exception of two in South America, and two in Asia, no other lake of equal size is known to lie at so great an altitude. At a short distance from the lake, on the eastern side, are mountains whose tops are covered with perpetual snow.