SPRINGS 



from mineral substances, but not more wholesome 

 on that account. 



The gigantic springs of the country that have 

 not been caught in any of the great natural basins 

 are mostly confined to the limestone region of the 

 Middle and Southern States, the valley of Vir- 

 ginia and its continuation and deflections into Ken- 

 tucky, Tennessee, northern Alabama, Georgia, and 

 Florida. Through this belt are found the great 

 caves and the subterranean rivers. The waters 

 have here worked like enormous moles, and have 

 honeycombed the foundations of the earth. They 

 have great highways beneath the hills. Water 

 charged with carbonic acid gas has a very sharp 

 tooth and a powerful digestion, and no limestone 

 rock can long resist it. Sherman's soldiers tell of 

 a monster spring in northern Alabama, a river 

 leaping full-grown from the bosom of the earth ; 

 and of another at the bottom of a large, deep pit 

 in the rocks, that continues its way under ground. 



There are many springs in Florida of this charac- 

 ter, large underground streams that have breath- 

 ing-holes, as it were, here and there. In some 

 places the water rises and fills the bottoms of deep 

 bowl-shaped depressions; in other localities it is 

 reached through round natural well-holes; a bucket 

 is let down by a rope, and if it becomes detached 

 is quickly swept away by the current. Some of 

 the Florida springs are perhaps the largest in the 

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