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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



tinued into the creek to a distance of about a 

 hundred yards from the springs ; where, at a 

 temperature of about 120° Fahr., the alga; grow 

 to a length of over two feet, looking like bunches 

 of waving hair of a beautiful green color. Be- 

 low the temperature of 100° Fahr., these plants 

 cease to grow, and give way to a slimy fungus, 

 which is also green in color, but finally disap- 

 pears as the temperature of the water decreases. 

 Dr. J. H. Wood, Jr., who has carefully examined 

 this growth, makes the following observations 

 with regard to it: " This plant certainly belongs 

 to the Nostochacece, and seems a sort of connect- 

 ing link between the genera Hormosiphon of 

 Kiitzing and Nostoc. 



" The best algologists now refuse to recog- 

 nize the former group as generically distinct, and 

 the characters presented by this plant seem to 

 corroborate this view. 



" The species appears to be an undescribed 

 one, and I would propose for it the specific name 

 Caladarium, which is suggested by its place of 

 growth." 1 



Twenty miles south from Owen's Lake across 

 a sage-brush and grease-wood waste, the surface 

 of which is plentifully strewed with fragments of 

 lava, pumice, and basalt, is Little Lake. This 

 sheet of water, which is of comparatively small 

 extent, is surrounded by huge masses of con- 

 torted vesicular lava, and evidently occupies the 

 cavity of an ancient volcanic vent. The waters 

 of this lake are considerably less alkaline than 

 those of Owen's Lake, but bubbles of carbonic 

 acid make their way to its surface in almost un- 

 interrupted streams. 



Fifteen miles east from this point are numer- 

 ous hot springs ; the path for the greater portion 

 of this distance lies over lava-flows, which render 

 traveling slow and fatiguing. At the principal 

 group of springs the ground is covered, over a 

 large extent, by innumerable cones of plastic 

 mud, varying in height from a few inches to sev- 

 eral feet ; these rise above the surface of a seeth- 

 ing swamp, and give issue to steam and jets of 

 boiling water. In some cases the steam and 

 gases, instead of issuing from cones as above de- 

 scribed, are evolved under the surface of water 

 and mud contained in basin-shaped reservoirs 

 formed in the decomposed rock. By these means 

 are produced multitudes of boiling caldrons in 

 which violent ebullition keeps clay in a constant 

 state of suspension ; this clay varies in color from 

 bluish gray to bright red. The waters of these 

 springs are much employed by the Indians as an 

 1 Sillimaii's Journal, vol. xlvi., 1S68, p. 33. 



embrocation for the cure of diseases of the eye ; 

 on examination they were found to contain forty- 

 eight grains of solid matter to the gallon, of 

 which amount twenty-six grains are sulphate of 

 aluminium ; in addition they contain lime, soda, 

 potash, and a little free sulphuric acid. 



Borates of sodium and calcium occur in va- 

 rious localities in North America. The two bo- 

 rax-lakes are both situated near the shores of 

 Clear Lake in Lake County, California, seventy 

 miles northwest of the port of Suscol, and one 

 hundred and ten from the city of San Francisco. 



The larger of these lakes is separated from 

 Clear Lake by a low ridge of volcanic materials 

 loosely packed together, and consisting of scoria?, 

 obsidian, and pumice; it has an average area of 

 about three hundred acres. Its extent, however, 

 varies considerably at different periods of the 

 year, as its waters cover a larger area in spring 

 than during the autumnal months. No stream 

 flows into its basin, which derives its supply of 

 water partly from drainage from the surrounding 

 hills, and partly from subterranean springs dis- 

 charging themselves into the bottom of the lake. 

 In ordinary seasons its depth thus varies from 

 five feet in the month of April to two feet at the 

 end of October. 



The borax occurs in the form of crystals of 

 various dimensions, imbedded in the mud of 

 the bottom, which is found to be most produc- 

 tive to a depth of about three and a half feet, al- 

 though a bore-hole which was sunk near its cen- 

 tre to the depth of sixty feet afforded a certain 

 amount of the salt throughout its whole extent. 



The crystals thus occurring are most abundant 

 near the centre of the lake, and extend over an area 

 equivalent to one-third of its surface ; they are, 

 however, also met with in smaller quantities in 

 the muddy deposit of other portions of the basin. 

 The largest crystals, some of which are consider- 

 ably above a pound in weight, are generally in- 

 closed in a stiff blue clay, at a depth of between 

 three and four feet; and a short distance above 

 them is a nearly pure stratum, from two to three 

 inches in thickness, of smaller ones ; in addition 

 to which crystals of various sizes are disseminated 

 through the blue clayey deposit of which the bot- 

 tom consists. 



Besides the borax thus existing in a crystal- 

 lized form, the mud itself is highly charged with 

 that salt, and, according to an analysis by Dr. 

 Oxland, affords, when dried, in those portions 

 of the lake which have been worked (including 

 the inclosed crystals), 17.73 per cent. Another 

 analysis of an average sample, by Mr. G. E 



