THE TWIN ISLANDS. 101 



and water, one does not want them mixed in such con- 

 sistency. 



The difference, so far as these meadows are concerned, 

 between a " boiling " spring and a " quicksand," is one 

 of dimension only ; one being an intermitting, upward 

 movement of a narrow column of water, bearing an in- 

 significant amount of sand ; the other a far greater bulk 

 of water, so charged with sand that its movement is very 

 deliberate : a spring is seldom more than a yard in di- 

 ameter ; a quicksand may extend over an area of sev- 

 eral square rods. The fact that the temperature of 

 the water in either case is always the same, 52° Fahr., 

 shows that springs and quicksands do not materially dif- 

 fer except in size. 



The danger attendant upon personal exploration of 

 these quicksand areas, and a natural repugnance due to 

 an adventure to be related hereafter, has deterred me 

 from any extensive survey, and only one of them, two 

 miles or more back from the creek, but in this valley, 

 has been carefully examined. For years my neighbors 

 have insisted that this particular quicksand is a verita- 

 ble bottomless pit. To satisfy them I took a ten-pound 

 lead, well greased, and brought up stiff clay from a 

 depth of eighteen feet, and think I learned the difficulty 

 about sounding the quicksand's depth, so far as my neigh- 

 bors are concerned. Not one of them but admitted he 

 had never used any other means of measurement than a 

 fence-rail. As these are either twelve or sixteen feet 

 in length, it is not at all strange my neighbors' never 

 reached bottom. And this holds good not only with 

 quicksands. How often it happens that they use but 



