THE MINERAL SPRINGS OF SARATOGA IJ 



cf 5 grains to a maximum of about 50 grains per U. S. gallon of 231 

 cubic inches. These values are practically equivalent to from 85 to 

 850 parts in a million. If we keep some such general figures as 

 these in mind we can carry along an idea as to the way the 

 mineral springs under discussion compare with ordinary waters. 

 Saratoga w^aters range from a minimum of 300 to a maximum of 

 about 1200 grains of dissolved solids per gallon. 



Regarding the movement of waters through the crevices of the 

 rocks, the friction greatly increases wath the decrease of the 

 diameter of the conduit. Thus if we deal with ordinary pipes, 

 under a constant head, the friction increases inversely as the 

 diameters. A pipe which has a diameter one-eighth that of an- 

 other, develops eight times as much friction, and the friction 

 operates to lessen the flow^ greatly. 



2 The magmatic waters. Observers of volcanic eruptions have 

 long been impressed with the vast amount of steam emitted under 

 great pressure at times of outbreak. The explosive violence of the 

 outbreaks has been chiefly attributed to it. In some instances only 

 such gaseous emissions, together with shattered rock, issue from the 

 crater, as was the case at Mont Pelee, Martinique, except for 

 the solid spine which was forced out in the closing stages. Mol- 

 ten lava failed. Emissions of steam are also yielded, sometimes 

 for months by consolidating lava streams wdiich have already 

 poured out on the surface. The amounts have at times been 

 calculated and they are very impressive. 



It was formerly a widespread belief that this water was derived 

 from the ocean or from seas near whose shores volcanos are 

 usually, but not invariably, situated. Geologists imagined that 

 the sea water percolating downward and inward, was drawn by 

 capillary attraction to the molten rock and became involved in 

 its substance. This conception has seemed impossible to many 

 later students of the subject who can not believe that water 

 would or could be drawn through rock gradually becoming hotter 

 and hotter, until the water successively passed its boiling point, 

 its point of dissociation into oxygen and hydrogen and neces- 

 sarily reached a temperature still higher by 1500 to 3000 degrees 

 Fahrenheit before it could be absorbed by the molten rock. It 

 seems to many at least that as soon as the water encountered 

 temperatures much above its boiling point it would be driven 

 outward. The writer therefore rejects the (XH^inic source (^f 



