154 THE MOUNTAIN. 



ILLINOIS SPRINGS. 



OF the springs of this State there is an extremely meagre 

 supply of facts. In a recent report, Dr. Norwood has given 

 a number of analyses, but not of mineral waters. Dr. Bell 

 enumerates a few, quoting from Professor Shepard. 



UPPER ILLINOIS SPRINGS contain carbonate of lime and 

 soda, chlorides of sodium, calcium, and magnesium, sul- 

 phate of lime, magnesia, and soda, carbonic acid and nitrogen 

 gases. They possess a higher temperature than the sur- 

 rounding springs. There is a sulphureous spring in the 

 bank of the Illinois, said to contain " sulphuretted hydrogen 

 and hydrosulphuret of sodium." Sulphur springs are also 

 found in the bed of Yermilion River. 



IOWA SPRINGS. 



ABOVE the Raccoon Fork, on the Des Moines, associated 

 with the carboniferous rocks of that region, there is a mine- 

 ral water referred to by Owen in his Geological Report. It 

 oozes from the argillaceous layers associated with the coal, 

 and is described as " having a faint-brown tinge, acid reac- 

 tion, and strong styptic taste." 



According to Mr. Owen, " chemical reagents show that it 

 is an acid solution of sulphate of alumina, sulphate of pot- 

 ash, and sulphate of protoxide of iron, and a little chloride 

 of potassium and sodium. It is, in fact, a double alum of 

 potash and protoxide of iron. The same kind of water was 

 observed at several other localities on the Upper Des 

 Moines." 



