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SILICIOUS SPRINGS. 



ingredients with which springs are impregnated is 

 small in comparison to lime, yet many of them, 

 especially thermal springs, contain more or less si- 

 licious matter in solution. Indeed, to dissolve sili- 

 ca, it is necessary that water should be raised to a 

 high temperature. 



The hot springs of Iceland, called Geysers, afford 

 the most remarkable example of the deposition of 

 silex. The circular reservoirs into which the water 

 falls are filled in the middle with a variety of opal, 

 and round the edges with a silicious deposite called 

 sinter. In some places a vesicular rock is formed, 

 containing portions of vegetables more or less 

 completely silicified ; and among other deposites is 

 that of clay and silica, called tripolL The silex is 

 deposited because the water, when cooled by ex- 

 posure to the air, is unable to hold as much silica 

 in solution as when it first issues from the, earth, at 

 a temperature of near 200° of Fahrenheit. 



Dr. Webster describes the hot springs of St. Mi- 

 chael, in the Azores, as rising through volcanic 

 rocks with a temperature varying from 93° to 207° 

 Fahrenheit, and depositing vast quantities of sili- 

 cious matter, which envelops the grass, leaves, 

 and other vegetable substances that fall within their 

 reach. These they render more or less fossil. The 

 vegetables may be observed in every state of petri- 

 faction. He found branches of the ferns, which 

 now flourish in the island, completely petrified, pre- 

 serving the same appearance as when vegetating, 

 excepting the colour, which is now ash-gray. Frag- 

 ments of wood occur more or less changed ; and 

 one entire bed, from three to five feet in depth, is 

 composed of the reeds, so common in the island, 

 completely mineralized, the centre of each joint 

 being filled with delicate crystals of sulphur. 



The silicious deposites are both abundant and va- 

 rious ; the most abundant occur in layers from a 

 quarter to half an inch in thickness, accumulated to 



