The Great Spirit Spring Mound. 



BY E. H. S. BAILEY. 



The "Waconda" or Great Spirit Spring, which is situated in Mitch- 

 ell County, Kansas, about two miles east of Cawker City, has been 

 described in detail by G. E. Patrick in vol. vii, p. 22, Trans- 

 actions of the Kansas Academy of Science. An analysis of the water, 

 and of the rock forming the mound on which the spring is located, is 

 also given. 



The spring is upon a conical, limestone mound 42 feet in height, and 

 150 feet in diameter at the top. The pool itself is a nearly circular 

 lake about 50 feet in diamter, 35 feet deep, and the water rises to 

 within a few inches of the top of the basin. There is a level space on 

 all sides of the spring so wide that a carriage can be readily driven 

 around it. 



There is but little indication of organic matter in the water of the 

 large spring, though there is a slimy white deposit adhering to the bot- 

 tom and sides, but the water is colorless, clear, and transparent. 

 The excess of water, instead of overflowing the bank, 

 escapes by numerous small fissures, from 10 to 20 feet 

 down on the sides, especially on the side away from the bluff. 

 In these lateral springs there is an abundance of green algse, and 

 a whitish scum, which seems to be detached from the bottom and 

 to float to the surface. This has a slimy, granular feeling suggesting in a 

 very marked manner hydrated silica. 



The mound is situated within about 200 feet of a limestone bluff, 

 which rises perhaps 20 feet above the level of the spring. The natur- 

 al inference would be that the harder material of the mound protected 

 it from the erosion which carried away the rock in the valley of the 

 Solomon on the south, and the rock between the spring and the bluff. 



Is it not possible however that tlie mound has been really made by 

 the successive deposits from the spring? Although the mound is plain- 

 ly stratified, this need not interfere with the theory, fen- the water may 

 have been intermittent in its flow. The rock is very ])orous, and on 

 being ground to a thin section is shown to be concretionary in structure. 



{S5] K.'\.V. UNIV. QIMU., vol.. I., .\0. 2, OCT., 1S92. 



