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156 



F. Shepherd on the Phiton Geysers of California. 



which often harden into crusts of greater or less strength and thick- 

 ness. Frequently the streams of boiling water would mount up to 

 the top of the cones with violent ebullition. Some of the cones 

 appear to be immense boiling cauldrons, and yc hear the lashing 

 and foaming gyrations beneath your feet as you approach them. 

 It is then a moment of intense interest. Curiosity impels you 

 forward — fear holds you back ; and while you hesitate, the thin 

 crust under your feet gives way, and you find yourself sinking 

 into the fiery maelstrom below. The writer on one occasion 

 heard the rushing of water under his feet. He struck down an 

 axe which on the first blow went through into the deep whirl- 

 pool the whole length of the helve. He withdrew it and cut 

 an opening, which revealed a stream of angry water, boiling, 

 intensely and of unknown breadth and depth. He continued to 

 enlarge the opening until the stream was seen to be five or six 

 feet in breadth, leading on indefinitely into the dark caverns be- 



neath the mountain. 



Ma 



Another place where a large vohime of water boils up violently 

 and settles in a circular basin and has also a steam tube by, its side, 

 is called Silliman'^s Fountain. Another, is named the Panther 

 *Geyser^ from the circumstance that a huge wild panther had taken 

 up his residence on the bank of the warm mound and seemed 

 quite unwilling to leave his comfortable habitation. Another, 

 where the waters gyrate with a loud noise ^^in gurgite vasto^^ is . 



called Pillions Cauldron. 



,4 



At the base of the cones, in the bottom of the ravines, and in 

 the bed and on the north bank of the river Pluton, springs almost 

 innumerable break out, which are of various qiiaHties and tem- 

 'peratures, from icy coldness up to the boiling point. You may 

 here find sulphur water precisely similar to the celebrated White 

 Sulphur of Green Brier County, Va., except it^ icy coldness. 

 Also red, blue and even black sulphur water, both cold and hot. 

 Also pure limpid hot water without any sulphur or chlorine salts, 

 calcareous hot waters, magnesian, chalybeate, &c., in almost end- 

 less variety. Every natural facility is afforded for either vapor, 

 shower or plunging baths. Where the heated sulphuretted hy- 

 . drogen gas is evolved, water appears to be suddenlyformed, beau- 

 tiful crystals of sulphur deposited (not sublimed as by fire), and 

 •more or less sulphuric acid generated. In some places the acid 

 was found so strong as to turn black kid gloves ahiiost imme- 

 diately to a deep red. Where the heated gas escapes in the river 

 Pluton, such is the amount of sulphur deposited that the whole 

 bed of the stream is made white for one or two miles below, sim- 

 ilar to the White Sulphur Spring in Virginia. From numerous 

 experiments made here and in the mountains of Virginia, I am 

 confident that all sulphur springs possess a high temperature after 

 descending below the cold surface water. Notwithstanding that 



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