HYDROLOGY. 115 



a striking contrast with the crystalline and limpid currents of 

 the eastern drainage. In the heights of the mountains, 

 however, both sets of brooks near their fontal springs pre- 

 sent the same characters, frequently, as we have seen, flowing 

 from the same rock. The western streams, from the above 

 designated characters of tortuousness and sluggishness, are 

 also more liable to dry up at a distance from their spring- 

 heads in the mountains. 



The springs, themselves, are not generally very large, as 

 there are not in the mountain any extensive limestone forma- 

 tions or soluble rocks through which water can make subter- 

 ranean caverns, consequently there are not any considerable 

 bodies of water suddenly emerging from the earth in full- 

 born creeks and rivers, as in the large limestone districts east 

 and west. 



As might be expected in the rocky heights of the 

 mountain, 



"From beneath whose chin 



The FOUNTS of rolling streams 



Their race begin," 



the waters are of exceeding purity. 



The rain and snows fall, and after short percolation through 

 the different rock formations break out in fresh and beautiful 

 springs. As to the mineralization of their waters they show 

 the characters of the rocks through which they flow. If the 

 mineral substances composing these formations are soluble, 

 their waters will show their presence ; if insoluble, they will 

 be more or less free of stony contents, the earth elements 

 of waters being derived from the filters or rocks through 

 which they pass, some of their gaseous substances being re- 

 tained from the air. 



This point in the treatment of the subject introduces an- 

 other division of the chapter on waters, namely, its 



HYDROLOGY, 



or the chemical character, therapeutic, virtues, and other 

 properties of waters. For besides the purposes of irriga- 



