60 GEOLOGICAL RECONNOISSANCE 



The ridges, 150 to 1G0 feet above the white sandstone, which crops out 

 near Sander's store, and elsewhere in the Barrens, are mostly strewed with 

 agatized and chalcedonized chert. These are either destitute of timber 

 or overgrown with thickets of low scrubby timber, while the narrow, tor- 

 tuous vallies or "coves," enclosed between the ridges, are, for the most 

 part, meadow prairie. 



Though rocky and rather forbidding, at first view, the land produces 

 well; particularly oats, wheat, wool, and honey. The crops of maize may 

 be considered average. The country is well watered, and possesses many 

 fine water-powers, even at the very fountain head of some of its numerous 

 limpid calcareous streams, which frequently burst forth from amongst the 

 ledges of rock. 



One of the most remarkable of these, forms the fountain-head of the 

 main fork of Spring river, known as the "Mammoth Spring," welling up 

 on the south side of a low rocky ridge, from a submerged abyss beneath 

 of sixty-four feet, and constituting, at its very source, a respectable lake 

 of about one-sixteenth of a mile from north to south, and one-fifth to one- 

 sixth of that distance from east to west. 



It is said, by those that have sounded the bottom, that there are large 

 cavities and crevices in the rock, and that the main body of the water 

 issues from a large cavernous opening of some forty yards in circumfer- 

 ence. It has been estimated that it boils up at the rate of about eight 

 thousand barrels per minute; the correctness of this estimate, we had no 

 means of verifying; but it may be safely estimated, that the average 

 constant flow would be at least sufficient to propel from 12 to 15 run of 

 stones. 



The uniform temperature and composition of the water, is peculiarly 

 congenial to the growth of a variety of cryptogamic, aquatic plants, pos- 

 sessing highly nutritive qualities, both for herbiverous animals and birds. 



In the early settlement of the country, herds of herbiverous wild 

 animals traveled from great distances to this fountain, of both food and 

 water, as well as flocks of wild fowl. Now, the cattle of the neighboring 

 farms may be seen wading in its waters, up to their middle, and browsing 

 on the herbage, which appears peculiarly congenial to their tastes; it is, 

 also, a general resort of ducks, geese, and other aquatic birds. 



This mammoth spring is located just south of the east and" west line 

 between Missouri and Arkansas, on section 5, township 21 north, range 7 

 west of the 5th principal meridian, and forms the most interesting feature 

 of this section of country, since it affords a water-power, which, if properly 

 improved, might supply valuable mill-sites, and water-privileges, for 

 manufacturing purposes in general. Small and rude as the present grist- 



