<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML xmlns:st1 = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2802" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY id=role_body style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: Arial" bottomMargin=7 leftMargin=7 topMargin=7 rightMargin=7><FONT id=role_document face=Arial color=#000000 size=2> <DIV>the Pelican Creek Mud Volcano most likely no longer exists as it did in the 1870s (surprise ! ), but the following description that I just found in _Wonderland Nomenclature_ is fun, and remids one of the "vertically gifted cyclic mud pot" at Pocket Basin.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Scott Bryan</DIV> <DIV>----------</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Peale took note of the following description of the spring written by Dr. S. Weir Mitchell who passed it in 1879:</P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0.5in 0pt">"as it has not been hitherto examined by any save hunters, I shall describe [it] at some length.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </SPAN>A gradual rising ground made up of soft sulphureous and calcareous earth was crowned by a more abrupt rise some thirty-five feet high, composed of tough gray clay.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </SPAN>This was pierced by a cone of regular form about thirty feet across at top and five feet at the bottom.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </SPAN>On the west, about one-third of the circumference was wanting from a point six feet above the lowest level, thus enabling one to be at a distance or to stand close by, and yet see to the bottom of the pit.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </SPAN>The ground all around and the shrubs and trees were dotted thick with flakes of dry mud, which gave, at a distance, a curious stippled look to the mud-spattered surfaces.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </SPAN>As I stood watching the volcano I could see through the clouds of steam it steadily emitted that the bottom was full of dark gray clay mud, thicker than a good mush, and that, apparently, there were two or more vents.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </SPAN>The outbreak of imprisoned steam at intervals of a half minute or more threw the mud in small fig-like masses from five to forty feet in air with a dull, booming sound, sometimes loud enough to be heard for miles through the awful stillness of these lonely hills.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </SPAN>It is clear, from the fact of our finding these mudpatches at least one hundred yards from the crater, that at times much more violent explosions take place.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </SPAN>The constant plastering of the slopes of the crater which these explosions cause tends to seal up its vent, but the greater explosions cleanse it at times, and all the while the steam softens the masses on the sides, so that they slip back into the boiling caldron below.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </SPAN>As one faces the slit in the cone there lies to the right a pool of creamy thin mud, white and yellow, feebly boiling.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </SPAN>It is some thirty feet wide, and must be not more than twenty feet from the crater; its level I guessed at sixteen feet above that of the bottom of the crater.</P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0.5in 0pt"><SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1">            </SPAN>"After an hour's observation near to the volcano I retired some fifty feet, and, sheltering myself under a stunted pine, waited in the hope of seeing a greater outbreak.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </SPAN>After an hour more the boiling lessened and the frequent explosions ceased for perhaps fifteen minutes.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </SPAN>Then [all] of a sudden came a booming sound, followed by a hoarse noise, as the crater filled with steam, out of which shot, some seventy-five feet in air, about a cartload of mud.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </SPAN>It fell over an area of fifty yards around the crater in large or small masses, which flattened as they struck.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </SPAN>As soon as it ended I walked toward the crater.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </SPAN>A moment later a second squirt shot out sideways and fell in a line athwart the mud-pool near by, crossing the spot where I had been standing so long, and covering me, as I advanced, with rare patches of hot mud.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </SPAN>Some change took place after this in the character and consistency of the mud, and now, at intervals, the curious spectacle was afforded by rings of mud like the smoke-rings cast by a cannon or engine-chimney.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </SPAN>As they turned in air they resembled at times the figure 8; once they assumed the form of a huge irregular spiral some ten feet high, although usually the figures were like long spikes, or, more rarely, thin formless leaves, and even like bats or deformed birds."</P> <DIV style="mso-element: footnote-list"><BR clear=all> <HR align=left width="33%" SIZE=1> <DIV id=ftn1 style="mso-element: footnote"> <P class=MsoFootnoteText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><A title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1" href="aoldb://mail/write/template.htm#_ftnref1" name=_ftn1><SPAN class=MsoFootnoteReference><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt"><SPAN style="mso-special-character: footnote"><SPAN class=MsoFootnoteReference><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">[1]</SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></A> S.Weir Mitchell, "Through the <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Yellowstone</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Park</st1:PlaceType> to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Fort</st1:PlaceType> <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Custer.</st1:PlaceName></st1:place>", <U>Lippincott's Magazine</U> 26:30-31, July 1880.</P></DIV></DIV></DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>