THE COLLECTING AREA OF THE WATERS OF THE 

 HOT SPRINGS, HOT SPRINGS, ARKANSAS^ 



A. H. PURDUE 

 University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Ark. 



Introduction. — The unusual interest with which the hot springs 

 of Arkansas are regarded because of their temperature and their 

 renown for medicinal purposes, furnishes the reason for the somewhat 

 exhaustive consideration of the source of their waters, which follows. 

 The conclusions herein presented were reached in the course of field 

 work on the structure and stratigraphy of the area about Hot Springs, 

 during the summer of 1909. The paper is written with the assump- 

 tion that the waters of the hot springs are meteoric. This assumption 

 is made partly because geologists in general have come to think of 

 most of the ground-water as having such origin, and partly because 

 the recent studies of Mr. Walter Harvey Weed upon the waters of 

 these springs indicate that they are meteoric.^ 



General topographic relations of the hot springs. — In casting about 

 for all possible sources of the waters of the hot springs, the highlands 

 of Arkansas and Oklahoma and those of the Appalachian province 

 command attention. 



The highlands of Arkansas and the eastern part of Oklahoma are 

 divided into a northern and a southern part, separated by the valley 

 of the Arkansas River. The northern division consists of the Boston 

 Mountains, which are a dissected plateau, reaching the height of 

 somewhat more than 2,200 feet above sea-level, and a much lower 

 area to the north of them. The southern division consists of the 

 Ouachita Mountains, which cover an area about 50 miles wide and 

 200 miles long. These mountains consist of ridges, the direction of 

 which is in the main east and west and some of which surpass 2,000 

 feet in height. 



1 By permission of the Chief Geologist, U.S. Geological Survey. 



2 "The Hot Springs of Arkansas," Senate Doc. No. 282, p. 90, Washington, D.C., 

 1902. Prepared under the supervision of the Secretary of the Interior. 



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