How many more geysers than those we saw in eruption there are in this remarkable basin, it is impossible to determine.  We will be compelled reluctantly to leave it before it can be half explored.  At least a thousand pipes rise to the plain, one or two hundred of which, to all appearances, are as likely to be geysers as any we have seen.

This entire country is seemingly under a constant and active internal pressure from volcanic forces, which seek relief through the numberless springs, jets, volcanoes and geysers exhibited on its surface, and which but for these vents might burst forth in one terrific eruption and form a volcano of vast dimensions.  It is undoubtedly true that many of the objects we see are of recent formation, and that many of the extinguished craters recently ceased their condition of activity.  They are constantly breaking forth, often assuming new forms, and attesting to the active presence of volcanic force.

The water in some of the springs presents to the eye the colors of all the precious gems known to commerce.  In one spring the hue is like that of an emerald, in another like that of the turquoise, another has the ultra-marine hue of the sapphire, another has the color of the topaz; and the suggestion has been made that the names of these jewels may very properly be given to many of these springs.

The packers with the pack train and several of our party broke camp at 9:30 this morning, a few of us remaining for an hour, hoping to have another view of an eruption of the “Giantess;” but in this we were disappointed, for it gave no sign of an eruption, save that the water, visible generally at a depth of about twenty feet, would rise suddenly eight or ten feet in the well, and as suddenly fall again.

We moved down the river on the east bank, part of the way through an open valley and part through fallen timber.  At about eight miles we came upon an enormous spring of dark blue water, the largest we have seen.  Mr. Hauser measured it, and says it is four hundred feet in diameter.  The mineral solution has been deposited by the overflow on all sides for two hundred yards, the spring itself being thirty feet above the general level of the valley.  Out near the center of the lake the water boils up a few feet, but without any especial violent action.  The lake has no well-defined outlet, but overflows on many sides, the water flowing down the slopes of the incrusted mound about one-quarter of an inch deep.  As we stood on the margin of this immense lake a small flock of ducks came sailing down as if to alight; but as they skimmed the water a few inches above the surface, they seemed to scent danger, and with rapid flapping of their wings, all except one rose into the air.  This one, in his descent, had gained too great an impetus to check his progress, and came down into the water, and his frantic efforts to rise again were futile, and with one or two loud squawks of distress, which were responded to by his mates who had escaped, he was in a moment “a dead duck.”  We gave no name to this lake.[AB]