ABSTRACTS. 
91 
quently given, as in the case of the Austin wells at the State capitol; 
the lunatic asylum, the Natatorium, etc.; the Manor well, the San Marcos 
well, and the wells at San Antonio. Some of the records, as must he ex- 
pected, are meager, owing to the want of scientific supervision of the 
drilling, yet, taken together, they add something to our knowledge of the 
subject, and could not well have been omitted from the report. 
Under the “Chemical Qualities of Water,” attention is called to the 
excellent analyses of water from Austin and vicinity furnished by Dr. 
Henry Winston Harper, professor of cheihistry in the University of 
Texas. 
On page 311 is given a table of the discharge of several spring rivers, 
that of the San Marcos reaching 57,522,200 gallons in twenty-four hours, 
and that of the Comal 211,981,932 gallons. From their studies the 
authors conclude that these and similar “waters come from the deep- 
seated rocks, and are forced to the surface by hydrostatic pressure. Hence 
they are artesian in nature and constitute natural artesian wells,”’ and, 
moreover, that their flow is either from the “sweet-water” horizon of the 
Edwards formation, or from the Travis Peak sands. 
As to the origin of the underground waters: the fact that the valley 
of the Pecos breaks the continuity of the strata renders it impossible, as 
the authors have pointed out, to consider the Pocky Mountain region in 
this connection. “The real source of the water is the rainfall of the 
Plateau of the Plains and its adjacent borders.” By the Balcones fault- 
ing, however, the continuity of the water-hearing strata is broken on the 
southeast and south, hence the water must escape to the surface through 
fissures or he forced into the porous beds beneath the Rio Grande Plain. 
The illustrations accompanying the report are many, and of a high 
order. 
Epsom Salts , Magnesium Sulphate , from Brown County , Texas. By H. 
W. Harper. Read before the Texas Academy of Science, June 15, 1897. 
The occurrence of Epsomite in large quantities in Brown County, and 
of a purity sufficient to make it the source of an exceedingly cheap com- 
mercial product, was here announced for the first time. Dr. Harper’s 
analyses gave the following results: 
