1717,718,719] springs and wells of "cane hills'". 329 



For the use of stock, the saline waters are probably unobjectionable. The 

 clays from which they are derived, when exposed on the surface, are often 

 greedily licked and eaten by cattle ; and in some instances, considerable excava- 

 tions have been the result of these operations. Such being the natural desire 

 of the animals, it is not likely that the drinking of water containing a moderate 

 amount of these same salts, should prove injurious. As for the limy waters of 

 wells and springs, it does not appear that the cattle of the prairies suffer in any 

 manner by the use of similar waters. 



717. In dry seasons, however, the wells dependent upon the 

 sipe water of the calcareous silt commonly give out, and even 

 those obtained at inconsiderable depths in the Grand Gulf strata 

 often fail. Hence the practicability of deep, bored, or artesian 

 wells, in this region, becomes of considerable practical importance ; 

 data concerning- which have been given in the Geological Report,. 

 (1318). 



Even should the water thus obtained in shallow bores prove 

 somewhat mineral, it would relieve the scarcity of stock water, and 

 the necessity of using the fetid, limy water of artificial ponds. 



718. In the region skirting, to the eastward, that of the calcareous 

 silt of the Cane Hills, where the latter formation thins out and 

 finally gives way altogether to the sandy and clay strata of the 

 Orange Sand formation, the supply of water is generally better 

 both in quantity and quality. 



Like the calcareous silt itself, the Orange Sand strata are here very commonly 

 underlaid by impermeable strata of tertiary clay or sandstone, which shed the 

 water and give rise to fine freestone springs, which flow out, of course, at the 

 level where these strata appear on the hillsides, and to which, in general, wells 

 on the ridges will require to be sunk. Thus in the Hamburg neighborhood, in 

 Franklin county, where the impervious clays appear nearly at a level with the 

 drainage of the country, while the ridges are formed of Orange Sand, wells do 

 not reach water at less than 80 to 110 feet — the whole height of the hills ; their 

 lowest portion being, as usual in such cases, dug in variously colored pipeclays 

 (1T70). If water can be obtained in these, it will generally be freestone ; if the 

 gray or blue clays are reached or penetrated, it may be more or less mineral, 

 but will be less likely to fail in dry seasons. 



The same remark holds true with reference to natural springs ; those which 

 issue above the gray clays, and are, therefore, dependent upon the overlying 

 Orange Sand strata for their supply, are much less reliable than those which, 

 like the Franklin or Wild-wood Springs, and others in the same neighborhood, 

 issue from the water-bearing strata of the Grand Gulf Group (H230 ; 314). 



719. The remarkable spring just mentioned, which has attracted some 

 attention both as a natural curiosity and for its curative powers, is situated in a 

 narrow valley of the Hamburg Hills. It forms a basin varying from 8 to 12 

 feet in diameter, in a loose fine sand. The surface of the clear cold water is 

 perfectly still, but at the depth of about two feet, there is an unceasing waving, 

 ebbing and flowing motion, on the surface of a fluid mixture of fine white sand 

 and water, caused by the rising of a powerful stream ot water in a rounded 

 channel, into which a pole can be sunk for 20 feet vertically — below this depth, 

 it seems to turn sideways. A pole thus introduced is ejected by the current 

 and its buoyancy, with great force ; a man cannot sink below the armpits, being 

 sustained by the current in a condition of very unstable, wabbling equilibrium. 

 The water of this, as well as of a number of other similar, but smaller springs 

 in the neighborhood, may be considered almost a "freestone ", since the amount 

 of mineral ingredients contained is very small — though of the usual, magnesian 



