iL-i CANYON SPRINGS. 165 
Each of the.se tunnels is in the open-textured basal portion of a lava 
flow, and the water rises through fissures or other openings in their 
bottoms. This fact shows that water exists under some pressure in 
rocks below the floors of the tunnels. The water has a temperature 
of 62 c F. and issues at a horizon approximately 60 feet below the 
level of the surface of the plain to the northward. 
Large springs occur at several localities from Hagerman to Bliss. 
In fact, there is what may be truthfully termed a continuous chain of 
springs along the north side of Snake River Canyon from about 2 
miles above the mouth of Salmon River westward to Bliss. Included 
in this series are the springs of Little and Box canyons, Sand Springs, 
the Snow Bank, The Thousand Springs, the numerous springs and the 
two flowing tunnels near Hagerman, and a large number of strong 
springs between Hagerman and Bliss. 
These springs issue from at least four, and perhaps more, strata. 
Those in Little and Box canyons and Sand Spring come from a stratum 
consisting largely of tine white sand which is overlain by a thick sheet 
of lava. The large springs supplying the Snow Bank come from above* 
this same stratum of lava and from beneath a higher sheet, the margin 
of which has been weathered back from the canyon's border. The 
Thousand Springs issue from the lower portion of the lava sheet, over 
which the water supplying the Snow Bank cascades. This lava sheet, 
when traced westward to the end of The Thousand Springs escarpment, 
declines somewhat rapidly, the true dip being to the southwest, and 
passes beneath the agricultural land at Hagerman Bend. That the 
stratum is water charged is shown by a large fissure spring at the base 
of a small fault which supplies in part a creek flowing eastward and 
emptying into Snake River about a mile above Salmon Falls. This 
fissure spring, as well as the passage of the water-charged layer which 
supplies The Thousand Springs, beneath Hagerman Bend, is strong 
evidence that artesian wells would be successful if put down near 
Hagerman, and probably at any locality in Hagerman Bend. The 
depth of the water-charged layer is not great, but increases from the 
northeastern portion of the bend toward the southwest. A test well 
put down at Hagerman to a depth of 500 or 000 feet would probably 
yield flowing water. 
The lava sheet in the escarpment to the north and northeast of 
Hagerman is higher in the rock series than the one supplying The 
Thousand Springs. It is probably the same one from which the water 
flowing over the cliffs at the Snow Bank emerges, but in the inter- 
vening space, about 3 miles in a straight line, lias been weathered far 
back from the canyon's brink, and was not followed in the tield. 
While the springs downstream from Hagerman all the way to Bliss, 
including the great springs in Malade Canyon, may come from the 
same layer that furnishes the water at the two tunnels described above 
