GEOLOGY OF SARATOGA SPRINGS AND VICINITY l6l 



source to the east the waters follow the upward inclines of the 

 thrust planes and of the beds of dolomite, which eventually lead 

 them to the surface in the Saratoga region; that in the dolomite 

 the waters make their way along a multitude of fissures or cracks 

 in the rocks, constituting a great network of channels which are 

 all connected when considered at large, but which locally may, or 

 may not, be closely connected. 



Summary. We hold it to be demonstrated that the Saratoga 

 carbonated waters, as they exist underground, are confined to the 

 district which has a shale cover, underneath which they are held 

 imprisoned in the Little Falls dolomite; and that the water orig- 

 inally found escape, to a limited amount, along the Saratoga fault 

 and through the shales near their thinned western edge. Certain 

 of these outlets were known, but there were also others in un- 

 known number hidden under cover of overlying glacial drift. We 

 hold it to be in the highest degree probable that the waters are 

 mixed waters, that they have in part a deep-seated source, and 

 that they come from the east, following up the thrust planes and 

 up the dip of the dolomite beds, utilizing fractures in the dolomite 

 as their channels. When their path is blocked by a normal fault, 

 they utilize it to rise to the level of the dolomite on the upthrow 

 or west side, and then reenter the dolomite. When the particular 

 fault which terminates the shales on the west is reached, the waters 

 rise to the surface along it wherever the ground levels permit. 

 The village springs and the Gurn spring are located on such a fault. 

 The Mta spring and the springs along Coesa creek rise through 

 the shales, quite possibly along a fault, though the fault has not 

 been demonstrated in either case'. 



W^hen we pass from these matters to those concerned with the 

 amount and permanence of the water supply, and to the question 

 of the origin of the waters, we are dealing with questions of quite 

 another sort, questions regarding whicWwide differences of opin- 

 ion prevail, and concerning which we can obtain little or no direct 

 information. 



The water supply. Below ground the manufacture of this 

 mineral water either has, or has not, ceased. It is still being manu- 

 factured, or it is not. If not, then we are dealing with a stored 

 water supply of definite amount, which can be pumped out and 

 exhausted, just as underground stocks of petroleum and of nat- 

 ural gas become exhausted. It seems to us unlikely that this is 

 a case of the kind. Springs have been flowing at Saratoga ever 

 since the region became known, and for an unknown length of 



