318 EXPLORATIONS ACROSS THE GREAT BASJN OF UTAH. 



scum deposited over aquatic plants which float on the water, and on the top of which 



been closed up. The top of the spring- sounds hollow. The water was found 10 feet 

 deep, and 107° Fahrenheit warm; it flows freelv over the rim of the cone, and dis- 

 appears at the base in the pumice-like tufa which it has deposited, and in the swampy 

 ground around. The warmest spring, of 100°.5 Fahrenheit, is one of the most southern, 

 and forms an elliptical large mound, winch evidently has had different openings at dif- 

 ferent times: now all except one are closed with tufa or filled with scum, and over- 

 grown with a luxuria.it vegetation, in consequence of the humiditv and warmth. The 

 present outlet is four feet wide and nearly filled up with calcareous scum. It will he 

 Closed probably in a short time. The water runs freelv over the rim, but disappears 

 before reaching the base of the elevation. Some -as bubbles up in all these springs; 

 it has no smell, and seems to be carbonic acid: but after the water had been kept some 



perceptible-, probably formed subsequently by the decomposition of some'sulpha"o7)y 



chiefly carbonate of lime, carbonate of .nnjesii,^^ 



carbonate of soda and a little chloride of sodium. I could not detect anything else 

 with the blow-pipe. The tufa, as well the compact, granular kind, which forms hori- 

 zontal layers, as the pumice-like vesicular, which is deposited bv the water runnin- 

 over the rim of the basin and on the plants which grow in the water, is mainly cai" 



of the springs attract innumerable rattlesnakes. Their principal resort N he) 'ween "the 

 large slabs of tufa at a dry and shattered spring-cone. 



A great deal of tufa has been deposited also at Big Spring, northeast of Battle 

 Creek. The water of that spring tastes somewhat like that of the Warm Springs but 

 is not altogether unfit for drinking. * "' 



A spring with similar tutaceous com., but on a smaller scale, and such formations 

 as indicate an apparently similar origin, were noticed at various points. The one in 

 com t^ 1 f ■" 1 l 1 ,!,, ;;. i|,,,l!,r1 -' : ,rtnirr( " 1 My :,m V tI(m - Th " 1V is «» i"Wil«vly conic hill, 



vegetation. I could scarcely hold my nand 'in' the" waler, the \ln^ZtXZ which 

 must be about li>(.~ Fahrenheit. It does not taste considerably sulphurous or salt, 



iodine al It7T»r t' tlM ' ^ ^""^ ^ ^^ ^^^ ^^ 

 iJ^^terthi^ub.tm.c,. up,,n tin pr^enc, of uhi.-h. ,x Tn ui'tlVe^malle.t prrl-c'-iit^e! 



same may also », , ,„ in others of th< se mine ral sp, ings | m , g ( „, ,,dly „ , a,Tbe detected 

 only by chemical analysis. 



The hot spring near the bend of Walker River has a temperature of 165° Fait- 



