752 



GEOLOGY OF OLD HAMPSHIRE COUNTY, MASS. 



The Massasoit Spring on the "Bear Hole" farm, in the western part of 

 West Spring-field, issues from the base of a very high bluff of sand that 

 forms the east wall of the deep channel which the Black Brook has cut in 

 the broad sand plain. The spring is said to show the uniform temperature 

 of 45° F. tlu-oughout the year. An analysis by Prof Charles IMayr, pub- 

 lished in the pamphlet advertisement of the spring, is here given: 



Analysif! of water of Massasoit Sprimj. 



Sodium chloride (salt) 



Carbonate of lime 



Carbonate of magnesia 



Sulphate of lime (gypsum) 



Silica 



Organic substances 



Potash, iron, alumina, phosphates, nitrates 



6.0 

 23.0 

 8.0 

 4.2 



4.0 

 12.0 

 trace 



0.360 



1.380 

 .480 

 .252 



9.240 

 .720 



trace 



Total. 



57.2 



3.432 



Although the spring was discovered only in 1886, very attractive 

 buildings have been erected and it has become a well-known place of 

 summer resort, and the water has been put on sale in Springfield for table 

 use. The brook just to the west runs over tlie surface of the trap, which 

 dips with great thickness beneath the sands from which the springs flow, 

 but it is not probable that a deep-seated water coming up through the 

 sandstone and trap would be so pure. It is probable that the waters 

 come wholly from the sand itself, and that the exceptional purity comes 

 from the fact that they have been filtered through a hundred feet of this 

 sand. 



THICK MODERX FISSURE DEPOSITS OF Ql ARTZ SURROUNDIIVG 

 ROOTS IN THE BASE OF THE HOLTOKE TRAP SHEET. 



In 1891 a great block of the trap fell from the vertical wall at the point 

 on the river above Titans Pier, where the trap contains limestone, and dis- 

 closed a mass of translucent chalcedonic quartz nearly as large as a man's 

 head, which was pierced with tubular openings 0.5 to I ™™ in diameter and 

 at least 4 inches in length, generally nearly but not rigidly parallel, and so 



