THE MINERAL SPRINGS OF SARATOGA 5 1 



formation of carbonate of lime. The amount of magnesia in the 

 sea, although diminished by the formation of dolomite and mag- 

 nesite, is now many times greater than that of the lime ; for as long 

 as chlorid of calcium remains in the water, the magnesium salts are 

 not precipitated by carbonate of soda." 



Doctor Hunt believed that the bicarbonate of soda which entered 

 the sea in river waters and which resulted from the decomposition 

 of the soda-feldspars was the agent which had brought about this 

 change in the long stretch of geological time since the early Paleo- 

 zoic. Obviously, if Doctor Hunt's views are correct about the 

 presence of calcium and magnesium chlorids in large proportions in 

 the early Paleozoic sea water the Saratoga Springs are not derived 

 from this ancient connate water, since calcium and magnesium 

 chlorids fail. 



On January 20, 1871, Professor Charles F. Chandler delivered a 

 lecture on '' Water " before the American Institute, at the Academy 

 of Music, New York City. The lecture was published in December 

 of the same year in the American Chemist, a monthly journal of 

 chemistry, then in its second volume. The paper is an extremely 

 valuable contribution and made public nearly all the analyses used 

 in the ** Chandler Series " of the preceding pages. Speaking of the 

 origin of the springs, on pages 202 and 204, Doctor Chandler 

 expresses himself as follows : 



The Laurentian rocks consisting of highly crystalline gneiss, 

 granite and syenite, are almost impervious, while the overlying 

 Potsdam sandstone is very porous and capable of holding large 

 quantities of water. In this rock the mineral springs of Saratoga 

 probably have their origin. The surface waters of the Laurentian 

 hills, flowing down over the exposed edges of the Potsdam beds, 

 penetrate the porous sandstones, become saturated with mineral 

 matter, partly derived, perhaps, from the limestones above, and are 

 forced to the surface at a lower level by hydrostatic pressure. The 

 valley in which the springs all occur indicates the line of a fault or 

 fracture in the rocky crust, the strata on the west side of which are 

 hundreds of feet above the corresponding strata on the east. 



The mineral waters probably underlie the southern half of the 

 entire county, many hundred feet below the surface : the accident of 

 the fault determining their appearance as springs in the valley of 

 Saratoga Springs, where by virtue of the greater elevation of their 

 distant source they reach the surface through crevices in the rocks 

 produced by the fracture. 



Their common origin is also shown by analysis. All the springs 

 contain the same constituents in essentially the same order of 

 abundance, they differ in the degree of concentration merely. Those 

 from the deepest strata are the most concentrated. . . . 



