GEOLOGY, 67 



dred and fifty acres of ground, and is strong with the solut^n. 

 In the mud at the bottom of this lake, the borax is found crys- 

 tallized in large quantities. Boracic acid has been discovered 

 in the sea-water near the coast. 



§ 47. Artesian Wells. — There are a great number of arte- 

 sian wells in California. In Santa Clara county, within a dis- 

 trict six miles wide by fifteen long, there are three hundred 

 and eighteen — more than are to be found in any other district 

 of equal size in the world. Their water is nearly all used to 

 irrigate land ; some for manufacturing purposes. They supply 

 about two million gallons in twenty-four hours. The wells 

 are from fifty to four hundred feet deep ; the bore varies from 

 six to nine inches. Only a small portion of Santa Clara valley 

 yields artesian water ; the artesian district lies north of a line 

 commencing at Mountain View; thence rimning nine miles 

 with the road through the 'town of Santa Clara to San Jose; 

 and thence southeast to the mountains. South of this line no 

 artesian water is found. 



It is supposed that the water comes from certain subterra- 

 nean streams. One well has abundant water at one hundred 

 feet ; another, not more than one hundred yards distant, has 

 no water short of three hundred feet. The wells throw up 

 living fish and shell-fish, wliich are of different species in dif- 

 ferent wells. Some wells throw up soft-shell clams good to 

 eat, and of a kind not found in the superterrene waters of the 

 state, before the opening of these artesian supplies. One well 

 throws up a snail, with a long spiral shell ; another has snails 

 with flat shells ; and others have blind fish, evidently of a spe- 

 cies that has lived longr in stibterrene waters, and lost its eves 

 because it had no use for them. Like the fish of the Mammoth 

 Cave, in Kentucky, these artesian fish have the eye-socket and 

 a blind eye in it. The wells that produce these fish and shell- 

 fish are mostly shallow, not more than one hundred and fifty 

 feet deep. If put into water fresh from wells two hundred 

 and fifty or three hundred feet deep, they soon die, as do su- 

 perterrene fish ; either, it is supposed, because the water is 



