Rocky Mountains, 293 



mal springs is thought to be not less than one hundred and 

 fifty feet, i'he water is transparent, but has a perceptible 

 metallic taste, and deposites upon the stones over which it 

 flows a copious, rust-like sediment. The Spring is known in 

 the neighbouring settlements as the " poison spring," a name 

 which we were told it had received from the following cir- 

 cumstance, said to have taken place many years since. A 

 hunter, who had been pursuing a bear, and was much ex- 

 hausted with heat and fatigue, arrived at this spring in 

 the middle of the day, and finding the water cool and not un- 

 pleasant to the taste, he drank freely of it, but immediately 

 afterward sickened, and died. His death was occ^Moned, 

 probably, not by f»ny deleterious quality in the water, but by 

 the disease commonly induced by drinking too largely of 

 cold water when the body is heated. The neighbouring inha- 

 bitants, however, imputed the hunter's death to some sup- 

 posed poisonous property in the spring. Not long after- 

 wards, a discontented invalid residing at the Hot Springs, 

 came to a resolution of putting a period to his own life. This 

 he concluded to bring about by drinking the water of the 

 Poison Spring. He accordingly repaired to it, and after 

 drinking as much as he was able, filled his bottle, and return- 

 ed home. Instead of dying, as he had expected, he found 

 himself much benefited by his potation. Notwithstanding 

 this discovery of the sanative quality of the water, the spring 

 still retained its former name; it is now used without appre- 

 hension, aad is much resorted to by people who visit the 

 Hot Springs. 



About tivo miles to the northeast of this spring, a little to 

 the left of the road leading to the settlement of Dardenai, is 

 the principal quarry from which the Washita oilstones are 

 procured. It is near the summit of a high and steep hill, 

 composed of the petrosiliceous rock already mentioned. 1 he 

 oil stones are found in the perpendicular seams or fissures of 

 the rock, from which they are detached with little difficulty, 



