PEALE.] DESCRIPTIVE GEOLOGY — SODA SPEINGS, &C. 593 



batli-liouses. The channel conveying the water is coated with iron oxide. 

 Very little gas escai^es from the spring. Below the summit there are 

 two" springs ; one of them is about two feet in diameter and gives off 

 considerable gas. There are besides several small holes, in which the 

 water is, for the most i)art, perfectly quiet. The temperatures were the 

 same in all the springs, viz, 80°, with the air at 74°. 



At the south end of the mound there are springs in which the follow- 

 ing temperatures were noted: ^o. 1, 81° F.; ISTo. 2, 80° F.; with the air 

 at 85°. There are also several small places from which water trickles. 

 These springs are all exposed to the direct rays of the sun. 



Bluff Spring. — This spring is situated on a mound similar to the one 

 just described. The water has been used for bathing purposes, but the 

 bath-houses have been destroyed. There are two principal springs, with 

 temperatures of 78°. There are also a number of small holes from which 

 water trickles. 



These springs are the ones described by Fremont as the Fountain 

 Springs. He says : "At a former time, when these dried-up fountains 

 were all in motion, they must have made a beautiful display on a grand 

 scale ; and nearly all this basin appears to me to have been formed under 

 their action, and should be called the place of fountains." 



Fremont, however, did not see the Hooper Spring nor the Formation 

 Springs. 



Hooper Spring. — This sirring is the best spring of the entire group. It 

 is on Soda Spring Creek, nearly 4 miles above it s mouth and about 1 J 

 miles above the town. It is close to the edge of the stream and is square, 

 measuring 10 feet 9J inches by 10 feet 9^ inches. It has probably been 

 artificially enlarged. There are five points of very active ebullition , caused 

 by the escape of carbonic acid gas, which gives the water an extremely 

 agreeable taste. The basin is lined with a deposit of iron oxide. The tem- 

 perature was 53°, while the air was 78°. Close to the spring there are a 

 number of muddy pools and springs surrounded with turf. The water 

 in them is below the general surface and the oj)enings are generally 

 smaller than the springs beneath. Carbonic-acid gas escapes in great 

 quantity, as we soon a]3preciate when we stoop to look into the springs. 

 Some of the holes contained dead frogs that looked as though they were 

 still alive. Other holes contained blackbirds that had been suffocated by 

 the gas escaping from the concealed springs. 



Formation Springs. — About four miles above the mouth of the creek: 

 and two miles east of the Hooper Spring, on the east side of the valley, 

 is a collection of basins of old springs formed of calcareous tufa. There 

 is at present but little water. The place is called Formation or Petrify- 

 ing Springs. There is an area of perhaps a half a square mile, which is 

 covered with semicircular basins of coarse tufa. Some are six feet in. 

 depth and of various sizes. These basins are empty. The partitions . 

 are several feet in thickness and lined with stalactitic and other tufa- 

 ceous ornamentation. In some there are huge masses that have been 

 formed by the coating of plants, in which the form of the leaf and twig ; 

 are perfectly retained. The water holding the carbonate of lime in solu- 

 tion has poured over the plants, and, evaporating, has coated them so. 

 as to bind them into one mass. This process is seen at all calcareous 

 springs, and at the bath-houses in the village wire baskets are coated 

 by allowing the water to flow over them and evaporate. The basins of 

 the Formation Springs are much like the basins at Gardiner's Eiver, in. 

 the Yellowstone National Park, but the deposit is evidently much older,, 

 and instead of the gray tint that the latter acquii'es with age this has a 

 yellow tint. The tufa is quite hard, and specimens of it are frequentl^r 

 38 GS 



