IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
97 
considerable extent; in one case an acre or more of this same 
soft rock, evidently formed by the springs. One spring is 
heavily charged with iron; another is called milk spring, soda 
spring, sulphur spring, etc., all within easy distance of each 
other. Some springs have a sort of periodic flow. 
Particularly is this true of one which sounds very much 
like the puffing of a steamboat. 
At the eastern end of the village is a spring issuing from 
fissures in what seems to be a volcanic rock. The water of 
this spring has a temperature of 108 degrees P. Close by this 
spring is a very neat and convenient bath house, with nice 
large pools for swimming. The water here is abundant, and, 
at first, seems almost too hot for comfort, but it soon becomes 
delightful. It contains a small amount of hydrogen sulphide. 
Seven miles northwest of the village, in a very wild and unfre- 
quented region, we visited what are known at the Springs as 
the Hot Springs. Here the water has a temperature of 160 
degrees P., so we were told; we forgot our thermometer at Ft. 
Collins. In about twenty minutes it cooked eggs for us. 
These springs are within a rod or two, on either side, of a 
delightful little mountain stream. They issue from fissures in 
a dark, fine-grained rock, already referred to as resembling 
diorite, or basalt. In one of the hills mentioned above, formed 
by the springs by the Bear, is a small cave. On descending 
into this cave, I had my first serious encounter with carbon- 
dioxide. It was wholly unexpected, and for a few moments I 
could not realize why I could not breathe. Other members of 
our party went into the cave, cautiously, to convince them- 
selves that there was an unbreathable gas present. In the 
bottom of this cave is an incrustation of what appears to be 
sulphur. 
There are abundant reasons for believing that the springs 
in and around this village are on the decline. Places where 
springs must have been strong and vigorous, in very recent 
geologic time, now show no signs of life. Such places are 
numerous. How rapidly such changes are taking place here 
now, we did not attempt to determine. 
Steamboat Springs is probably a little over 6,000 feet above 
the sea. Every night, while we were camped at the village, 
water froze in our buckets, and particularly, on the morning of 
July 24th, so much ice was formed in our buckets and about 
our mess box, that, judging from like conditions at Muscatine, 
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