26 The Springs of Southern Nevada. [January, 
about twenty-five feet in diameter, it was fifteen feet in height and 
was covered with “¢u/es” and coarse grass. Several small sul- 
phur springs oozed from its nearly flat top, and provided moist- 
ure for the tangled vegetation. 
It appeared as if built up by the partial decay of organic matter 
and the depositions of these numerous springlets. The soil was 
tremulous and yielding to the tread, and resembled in that par- 
ticular the sphagnous bogs of Alaska. The fumes of sulphuret- 
ted hydrogen were strongly apparent even at some distance from 
the mound. 
A short distance beyond the mound above-mentioned, occurred 
the Las Vegas Springs (Figs. 8, 9), the largest of which was ap- 
CHa 
J. 
parently about three feet deep, with white quicksand constantly 
“boiling up” from the bottom. Quite a large creek issued 
from it and ran in a south-easterly direction for a mile or more. 
This spring had been regarded by the Indians and squatters as 
a rather supernatural one, and among other improbable legends was 
said to be bottomless. This myth, at least, was exploded when a 
& -= sixty pound weight tied to a cord was used to sound its depth. 
_ This weight sank eighteen feet and three inches through the ever 3 
