8. A hundred yards farther from the river, near the centre of a group of spouting and boiling geysers, is a large oval aperture with scalloped edges. The sides are covered with a grayish-white deposit, and are distinctly visible at the depth of a hundred feet below the surface. 9. No water could be discovered on our first approach to the spring, but we could distinctly hear it gurgling and boiling at a great distance below. Suddenly it began to rise, boiling and spluttering, and sending out huge volumes of steam. This caused a general flight of our company, and drove us some distance from our point of observation. 10. When within about forty 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 sending up small jets of hot water nearly to the mouth of the orifice. 11. All at once it rose with great rapidity, hardly affording us time to flee to a safe distance, and burst from the orifice with terrible force, rising in a column the full size of this immense aperture to the height of sixty feet. Five or six smaller jets, round columns of water, varying in size from six to fifteen inches in diameter, were projected to the marvellous height of two hundred and fifty feet. 12. This grand eruption continued for twenty minutes and was the most magnificent sight we ever witnessed. The rays of the sun filled the sparkling column with myriads of rainbows, whose arches were constantly changing. The minute globules into which the smaller jets were diffused sparkled like a shower of diamonds as they fell. All that we had previously witnessed seemed tame in comparison with the combined grandeur and beauty of this display. 13. Across the river, and a short distance below this group, is the largest formation in the valley, the crater of Castle Geyser, from its resemblance to the ruins of an old castle. The entire mound is about forty feet high, and the lower portion rises in steps, made by successive depositions an inch or two thick. This has undoubtedly been one of the most powerful geysers in the basin; it still keeps up a great roaring inside. It occasionally threw out a column of water to the height of ten or fifteen feet and once to the height of sixty feet, the eruption being followed by the escape of volumes of steam. 14. A little below the Castle are some fifty springs about to occur, the basin gradually fills with boiling water to within a few feet of the surface. Suddenly, with heavy concussions, immense clouds of steam rise to the height of five hundred feet. The whole great body of water, twenty-five feet in diameter, ascends in a gigantic column to the height of ninety feet; while, from the apex of this column, five other great jets shoot up to the remarkable altitude of two hundred and fifty feet from the ground. 15. The earth seems to tremble under the descending deluge. A thousand hissing sounds are heard in the air. Rainbows encircle the summits with a halo of glory. It is probably the grandest, the most majestic, and the most terrible fountain in the world. 16. After playing thus for twenty minutes it gradually subsides, the water disappears, the steam ceases to escape, and all is quiet. This geyser played three times in the afternoon, and the waving to and fro of the gigantic fountain in the bright sunlight afforded a spectacle of wonder of which no description can give more than a very feeble idea. Stu-pen'dous. ishing. Wonderful; aston- | De-pos'it. Solid matter left by flowing water. Pro-ject'ed. Thrown or cast for- Sta'tion-a-ry. Fixed; motionless. ward. Jad'ed. Tired; weary. Cra'ter. The mouth or circular cavity at the summit of a volcano. In'ter-vals. Spaces of time. Ap'er-ture. Opening; hole. Or'i-fice. An opening in the form of a mouth. Dif-fused'. Spread; scattered. Sub-sides'. Settles; abates. [Sir John Franklin was a distinguished English naval officer. In May, 1845, he started, with two vessels, on a voyage to the North Pole, in hopes of discovering a northwest passage to Eastern Asia. His vessel was last seen in July of that year. In the course of the next eleven years more than twenty different expeditions were sent out to look for the missing crew, but without success. It was not until 1859 that his fate was ascertained by the commander of a small vessel fitted out by his wife, Lady Franklin, after everybody else deemed the task hopeless. It was then ascertained that he had died of sickness on the 11th of June, 1847. This poem was written by Miss Elizabeth H. Whittier, sister of John Greenleaf Whittier, the well-known poet.] 1. OLD thy hands, thy work is over! FOL Cool thy watching eyes with tears; Let thy poor heart, overwearied, Rest alike from hopes and fears : 2. Hopes, that saw, with sleepless vision, Fears, that followed, vague and nameless, 3. For thy brave one, for thy lost one, 4. Not for him that hour of terror, |