is 4,218 feet; in ether at zero, 3,801; in
sea water at 20 degrees C., 4,768. By direct measurements, carefully
made, by observing at night the interval which elapses between the flash
and report of a cannon at a known distance, the velocity of sound has
been about 1,090 per second at the temperature of freezing water.
DESCRIPTION OF THE YELLOWSTONE PARK.--The Yellowstone National Park
extends sixty-five miles north and south, and fifty-five miles east
and west, comprising 3,575 square miles, and is all 6,000 feet or more
above sea-level. Yellowstone Lake, twenty miles by fifteen, has an
altitude of 7,788 feet. The mountain ranges which hem in the valleys
on every side rise to the height of 10,000 to 12,000 feet, and are
always covered with snow. This great park contains the most striking
of all the mountains, gorges, falls, rivers and lakes in the whole
Yellowstone region. The springs on Gardiner's River cover an area of
about one square mile, and three or four square miles thereabout are
occupied by the remains of springs which have ceased to flow. The
natural basins into which these springs flow are from four to six feet
in diameter and from one to four feet in depth. The principal ones are
located upon terraces midway up the sides of the mountain. The banks
of the Yellowstone River abound with ravines and canons, which are
carved out of the heart of the mountains through the hardest of rocks.
The most remarkable of these is the canon of Tower Creek and Column
Mountain.
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