688 THE SPRINGS OF SOUTHERN NEVADA. 



true key to a solution of the problem as rej^ards both the mode of occur, 

 rence and means to be used for the purpose of avoiding great explosions in 

 future. The sentences referred to are these : — " In considering the extent 

 of the fire for the moment of explosion, it is not to be supposed that the fire- 

 damp is its only fuel ; the coal dust swept by the rush of wind and flame 

 from the floor, roof, and walls of the works, would instantly take fire and 

 burn, if there were oxygen enough in the air to support its combustion ; and 

 we found the dust adhering to the face of the pillars, props, and walls ici 

 in the direction of, and on the side towards the explosion increasing gradu- 

 ally to a certain distance as we neared the place of ignition. This deposit 

 was in some parts half an inch, and in others about an inch thick; it ad- 

 hered together in a friable coked state ; when examined with the glass it 

 presented the fused round form of burnt coal dust, and when examined 

 chemically, and compared with the coal itself reduced to powder, was found 

 deprived of the greater portion of bitumen, and in some cases entirely des- 

 titute of it." About three years ago M. Vital, Ingenieur des Mines in France, 

 showed that a flame resembling that produced by a blasting shot which 

 blows out the tamjDing is greatly lengthened in an atmosphere containing a 

 cloud of coaldust ; and soon afterwards the writer ascertained that air con- 

 taining a small portion of firedamp (less than one per cent, by volume) be- 

 comes highly inflammable when coal dust is mixed with it. These discov- 

 eries complete what Lyell and Faraday began, and show how explosions of 

 any conceivable magnitude may occur in mines containing dry coal dust. A 

 blasting shot or a small local explosion of firedamp, or anaked^lightjexposed 

 when a cloud of coaldust is raised up by a fall of roof in air already con- 

 taining a little firedamp, is sufficient to initiate them, and when once they 

 are begun, they become self-sustaining. Out of many hundred colleries 

 known to me, there is not, to my knowledge, a single damp one in which a 

 great explosion has happened ; while, on the other hand, there is a consid- 

 erable number of very dry ones in which explosions, causing the deaths of 

 from 12 to 178 men at a time, have occurred. — Engineering and Mining Jour- 

 nal, Jan. 5th, 1878. 



THE SPRINGS OF SOUTHERN NEVADA. 

 BY D. A. LYLE, U. S. A. 



It is the intention of the writer to merely jot down a few personal recol- 

 lections of some of the springs visited in the arid region of Southern 

 Nevada, while a member of one of the Wheeler expeditions. 



To those who have experienced the pangs of thirst while journeying 

 over the desolate wastes that characterize this section, it will not be sur- 

 l^rising that reminiscences of water should linger longest in the memory 

 of the traveler. In fact the procurement of that necessity is a matter of 

 such vital importance that all movements are subordinated and controlled 

 by the answer to the question, "Is there any vi^ater there?" Should the 



