CORAL LIfE AND GROWTH. 623 



'magnesia and sulphate of soda, but those which possess purgative qualities are 

 few, and their qualities are insignificant. 



At Canon City, where the Arkansas River breaks through the famous gorge, 

 is another spring. He would remark that those springs generally appear where 

 the granite rocks connect with the secondary rocks of a recent date. At Canon 

 City the secondary rocks are lying on the same slope with the granite ones, and 

 the same is true of Las Vegas, New Mexico and the Middle Park Springs, where 

 the Grant River breaks through. The temperature at Canon City is about ioo° ; 

 there are here very good bathing establishments and the scenery is very beautiful. 



The springs of Middle Park were to him most interesting. They are hot 

 sulphur ones, about 112° in temperature. A good many small ones gather in a 

 place not larger than one-fourth of the room in which they were assembled. 

 They fall into a basin eight to ten feet high, and there is a considerable little cas- 

 cade. It is roofed in with a rough sort of building and used as a mineral bath. 

 When one first gets in he is inclined to draw his feet out, but after a while he will 

 get under the waterfall and enjoy a fine douche. The springs are very medicinal, 

 containing salts of soda and a small quantity of sulphur, enough to impregnate 

 the neighborhood with an odor of hydrosulphuric acid. They are out of the way, 

 between forty and fifty miles from the railway, reached by a tri-weekly stage 

 communicating with the railway at Georgetown. The accommodations are not 

 very good, but he was convinced that there was a great future for that spring 

 from a medicinal point of view. 



The next which he had visited was the Las Vegas Spring. This is situated 

 some six miles from Las Vegas, through which town the new Atchison, Topeka 

 & Santa Fe Railroad runs. There are good hotels and bath-houses, and the cli- 

 mate is such that it is expected winter guests may be invited. The waters are 

 from 120° to 125° in temperature, too hot for use, and have to be cooled off. 

 But the bath-houses have every accommodation — sweat baths, steam baths, etc, 



A general discussion on the subject of springs was indulged in, and the grave 

 scientists unbended themselves in jocose reflections upon the alleged healing 

 properties of Missouri Springs, especially. Professor Potter said that chemical 

 analysis of the Eureka Springs showed that they contained the usual ingredients of 

 seidlitz waters, with about a fourth of a grain of mineral matter to a gallon of water, 

 and the properties of the rest were equal to about one-fifth of those of Mississippi 

 water. 



CORAL LIFE AND GROWTH. 



The Mechanics' Institute's usual winter course of free, popular lectures was 

 begun last evening. The lecturer was Prof. Joseph LeConte, of the State Uni- 

 versity, who gave the first of a series of three lectures, in which he will expound 

 the mysteries and beauties of coral life and growth. He spoke for an hour and 

 ^ half last evening, greatly to the entertainment of his audience, illustrating his 



