GEOLOGY. 67 
dred and fifty acres of ground, and is strong with the solution. 
In the mud at the bottom of this lake, the borax is found erys- 
tallized in large quantities. Boracic acid has been discovered 
in the sea-water near the coast. 
§ 47. Artesian Wells——There are a great number of arte- 
sian wells in California. In Santa Clara county, within a dis- 
trict six miles wide by fifteen long, there are three hundred 
and eighteen—more than are to be found in any other district 
of equal size in the world. Their water is nearly all used to 
irrigate land; some for manufacturing purposes. They supply 
about two million gallons in twenty-four hours. The wells 
are from fifty to four hundred feet deep; the bore varies from 
six to nine inches. Only a small portion of Santa Clara valley 
yields artesian water; the artesian district lies north of a line 
commencing at Mountain View; thence rtinning nine miles 
with the road through the town of Santa Clara to San José; 
and thence southeast to the mountains. South of this line no 
artesian water is found. 
It is supposed that the water comes from certain subterra- 
nean streams. One well has abundant water at one hundred 
feet; another, not more than one hundred yards distant, has 
no water short of three hundred feet. The wells throw up 
living fish and shell-fish, which are of different species in dif- 
ferent wells. Some wells throw up soft-shell clams good to 
eat, and of a kind not found in the superterrene waters of the 
“state, before the opening of these artesian supplies. One well 
throws up a snail, with a long spiral shell; another has snails 
with flat shells; and others have blind fish, evidently of a spe- 
cies that has lived long in subterrene waters, and lost its eyes 
because it had no use for them. Like the fish of the Mammoth 
Cave, in Kentucky, these artesian fish have the eye-socket and 
a blind eye in it. The wells that produce these fish and shell- 
fish are mostly shallow, not more than one hundred and fifty 
feet deep. If put into water fresh from wells two hundred 
and fifty or three hundred feet deep, they soon die, as do su- 
perterrene fish; either, it is supposed, because the water is 
