336 CONNECTION OF THERMAL SPRINGS IN VIRGINIA 



from the southeastern margin of the Appalachian beh than any 

 others referred to in the tables, their distance from the Blue ridge, 

 in a direct transverse line, being about forty miles. The While 

 Sulphur axis, exposing For. VII, at the springs, dies out in a 

 short distance towards the southwest ; but, traced in the opposite 

 direction, expands into a considerable ridge, bringing into view 

 the upper part of For. VII, here of inconsiderable thickness, and 

 eventually terminates in a roll of the slates of For. VIII, near 

 Anthony's Creek. In the neighborhood of the springs the flex- 

 m-e of the strata is remarkably abrupt, the gentle slope on the south- 

 eastern, passing into a vertical or slightly inverted dip on the 

 opposite side of the axis. With the exception of this and another 

 adjacent but very inconsiderable line of exposures, the surface for 

 many miles on either side is occupied by the slates and sand- 

 stones of Fors. VIII and IX, bent and contorted by numerous 

 lesser axes, and in the Allegheny Mountain and the numerous 

 adjoining hills, carved by denudation into a variety of pictm-- 

 esque forms. 



The waters of the White Sulphur are copious, but accom- 

 panied by very little evolved gas. The few bubbles I have suc- 

 ceeded in enti'apping, proved to be nearly all niti-ogen, but it is 

 uncertain whether they arose with the water from the depths 

 below, or were developed in the basin of the spring. 



Though decidedly thermal, these waters have a fluctuating 

 temperature, never, however, as I think, approaching nearer than 

 ten degrees to the atmospheric mean.* They form the only in- 

 stance within my knowledge of a strongly sulphureous and at the 

 same time thermal water in the United States ; and in these re- 

 spects bear a close analogy to certain thermals of the Pyrenees. 1" 



* Dr. Daubeny. who visited these springs when in this country, did not advert to their 

 being thermal. See Sillinian's Journal. April, 1S39. 



1 The plnmuse, filamrntous growth, involving a largeamountofhydrated sulphur, which 

 lines the basin and outlet of these waters, and which from its color has given rise to the 

 name of White Sulphur, is also found in other sulph\ireous springs in the State, and has 

 caused the adoption of this name as descriptive of such springs as a class, notwithstanding 

 their want of agreement in other and far more important particulars. Organic products of 

 another kind, developed in the enclosures of the Red, Blue, Gray, Crimson, and Green 

 Sulphur Springs, and whose true nature was also first suggested by myself, (see Hare's 

 Chemistry, 1838,) have by a like conneclion originated the names by which lliese springs 



