Rocky Mountains. 289 



derstood as having the application given it by Kirwan, who 

 uses it to designate the fusible varieties of the hornstone of 

 Werner, and not the several varieties of compact feldspar, 

 to which it has been sometimes applied. In passing from 

 the Hot Springs, northeast to the Lead Mine country, about 

 the sources of the Merameg, this rock is found to be inti- 

 mately connected, and to pass by minute and imperceptible 

 gradations into the flint rock of that district, which is deci- 

 dedly secondary, and of contemporaneous origin with the 

 compact limestone. About the Hot Springs, it is not distinct- 

 ly stratified, but occurs in very extensive masses, sometimes 

 forminer the body of large hills, and is marked by perpen- 

 dicular seams and fissures, often placed very near each 

 other. 



The Hot Springs of the Washita are in north latitude 34° 

 31' and west longitude, 92^ 50' 45"* near the base of the 

 south eastern slope of the Ozark mountains, and six miles 

 north of the Washita. They have been erroneously repre- 

 sented as the principal sources of that river, which are more 

 than one hundred miles distant. 



We have been informed, that these remarkable springs 

 were unknown even to the American hunters, until the year 

 1779. At that time, it is said, that there was but one spring 

 discharging heated water. This is described as a circular 

 orifice, about six inches in diameter, pouring out a stream of 

 water of the same size, from the side of a perpendicular 

 clifl, about eight feet from its base. At another place, near 

 the top of the mountain, which rises abruptly towards the 

 east, the heated water is said to have made its appearance 

 near the surface of the ground, in a slate of ebullition, and to 

 have sunk and disap'peared again upon the same spot. It is 

 probable these representations are in a great measure fabu- 

 lous. All we are to understand by them, is, that the gradual 



* Hunter and Dunbar- 

 VOL. II. 37 



