6Q 



GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 



Fig. 13. 



eye alone could convey any adequate conception to the mind. The steep 

 sides of the hill were ornamented with a series of semicircular basins, 

 with margins varying in height from a few inches to 6 or 8 feet, and so 

 heautifully scalloped and adorned with a kind of bead-work that the be- 

 holder stands amazed at this marvel of nature's handiwork. Add 

 to this, a snow-white ground, with every variety of shade, of scarlet, 

 green, and yellow, as brilliant as the brightest of our aniline dyes. 

 The pools or basins are of all sizes, from a few inches to 6 or 8 

 feet in diameter, and from 2 inches to 2 feet deep. As the water flows 

 from the spring over the mountain side from one basin to another, it 

 loses continually a portion of its heat, and the bather can find any desir- 

 able temperature. At the top of the hill there is a broad flat terrace 

 covered more or less with these basins, one hundred and fifty to two 

 hundred yards in diameter, andmany of them going to decay. Here wefind 

 the largest, finest, and most active spring of the group at the present 

 time. The largest spring is very near the outer margin of the terrace 

 and is 25 by 40 feet in diameter, the water so perfectly transparent that 

 one can look down into the beautiful ultramarine depth to the bottom 



of the basin. 

 The sides of 

 the basin 

 are orna- 

 mented with 

 coral-like 

 forms, with 

 a great va- 

 r i e t y of 

 shades,from 

 X)ure white 

 to a bright 

 cream -yel- 

 low, and the 

 blue sky re- 

 flected in 

 the'trans- 

 parent wa- 

 ters gives an 

 azure tint to 

 the whole 

 which sur- 

 passes all 

 The calcareous deposit around the rim 

 i> .ilso most elegantly ornamented, but, like 

 ilic icy covering of a pool, extends from the 

 < «1l< toward the center, and this projects over 

 ili( basin until it is not more than a fourth of 

 .III inch thick. These springs have one or 

 more centers of ebullition, and in this group it 

 is constant, seldom rising more than two to 

 four inches above the surface. From various 

 portions of the rim the water flows out in 

 moderate quantities over the sides of the hill. 

 Whenever it gathers into a channel and flows 

 quite swiftly, basins with sides from 2 to 8 feet 

 OF OVERFLOW OF jj^jo'h arc foHucd, with the ornamental designs 

 proportionately coarse, but when the water 



'^■Zl^d^S'Ut^'ili- VTI • f « 



dil. 



GENERAL VIEW 



GREAT SPRING, GARDINER'S RIVER 



