Word Pictures of the Yellowstone. IV

Word Pictures of the Yellowstone. ALFRED LAMBOURNE IV HELL'S HALF ACRE— MIDDLE BASIN FLOWING through a narrow valley is seen a clear, green river. On one hand is a broad field of ashen gray, with wells and cauldrons sunk in its surface, and filled with sulphurous waters, trembling like liquid fire, or sleeping in sombre indigo. One cauldron is edged around with white and yel- low geyserine, and is being slowly undermined, its walls sinking piecemeal into the pool below. On one side of this cauldron is an opening through which its waters empty into the passing Fire Hole Photo by Hugo B. Ande River. This, the Cliff Cauldron, or Excelsior Geyser, whose erup- tions shake the surrounding earth. Now nothing but pearly-tinted steam rises from off its surface, and melts into the ultra-marine sky above. Near by, on the same huge mound, is the Prismatic Lake — beautiful even if terrible; its blue and green limpid depths gleaming with evil light, as the eyes of a tempting demon.. Streams of the surplus waters traverse the ashen fields, encrusting their backs with deposits of brilliant red and yellow. On the other hand, across the river, is greensward dotted with trees and enriched with a profusion cf wild flowers — a bit of the Fields of Lethe, bordering upon the City of Dis.