CHAPTER VI.

MINERAL SPRINGS.

WHAT ARE MINERAL SPRINGS--GENERAL LOCATION--GAS SPRINGS--IRON SPRINGS--SULPHUR SPRINGS--ALUM SPRINGS--EPSOM SPRINGS--SALT SPRINGS--WARM SPRINGS--ARTESIAN WELLS AND OIL WELLS, AND WHERE TO BORE FOR THEM.

Any spring which contains a large amount of foreign matter, as gas, salts and earthy ingredients, is called _mineral water_. The special prominence of any ingredient gives it its particular name. Many iron springs contain salt, salt springs contain iron, and both may contain gas; the name is derived from the most prominent ingredient.

Our country is rich in mineral springs; there is not a State without one. But in general they are most numerous in hilly or mountainous regions, especially where the rocks are much deranged in position, or “faulted,” as the miners say. As for example, in Eastern New York and in the valley between the Blue Ridge and the Alleghany from Harper’s Ferry to the Natural Bridge. The Pacific States, also, are as remarkable for the number and variety of their mineral springs as for their metallic ores.

CARBONATED OR GAS SPRINGS.--Springs of this class have a peculiar sparkling character and are continually sending up bubbles of gas. When the quantity of gas is small, it may be detected by adding a little lime water which will give it a milky appearance and deposit a white sediment; or, dip in a piece of blue litmus paper (which can be had of most druggists), and if there is any carbonic acid gas in the water, it will be reddened; or, pour in a little vinegar, stir well, and then add a little finely powdered sugar, when the gas, if it is there, will rise in small bubbles.

The most celebrated carbonated springs are the following: Saratoga and Ballston, N. Y.; Clarendon, Vt.; Sweet Springs in Shover’s Valley, Pa.; Bladon and Bailey Springs, Ala.; “Boiling Springs” near Pike’s Peak, Col.; Beer Springs near Bear River, Or. These springs contain salt, soda, magnesia, lime and iron, and are sometimes classed as _saline_, _soda_ or _chalybeate_ springs.

CHALYBEATE OR IRON SPRINGS.--The presence of iron in a spring may be ascertained by pouring into it an infusion of nut-galls, of logwood or of tan-bark, which will change it immediately to a black or dark color. If the water contains much iron, it may be recognized by its inky taste and by a yellowish powder on the border of the spring or at the bottom of a tumbler when allowed to stand awhile.

If waters have a cool but earthy taste, they contain lime; if bitter, they have magnesia. The “soda springs,” so called, are often only saline, carbonated or magnesia waters.

The most famous iron springs are at Saratoga, Sandlake and Catskill, N. Y.; West Bethel, Fryeburg, Eberne and Bethel, Me.; Schooley’s Mountain in Washington, N. J.; Bedford, Pittsburg, Frankfort and York, Pa.; Brandywine Springs, Del.; Red Sweet Springs in Monroe County, Rawley’s Spring in Rockingham County, and Huguenot Springs in Powhattan County, Va.; in Bath County, Ky.; Yellow Springs, O.; twenty miles east of Knoxville, Tenn.; Madison County, Geo.; Raymond and Lynchburg, Miss.; near Ogden City, Utah; near Mt. Shasta, Col.

SULPHUR SPRINGS.--These are easily recognized by their unpleasant odor, resembling that of rotten eggs. The water blackens silver and a solution of sugar of lead.

Sulphur springs are very numerous. The best known are at Saratoga, Sharon, Clifton, Avon, Manlius, Chittenango, Dryden and Richfield, N. Y.; Highgate and Newburg, Vt.; Togus, Bethel and West Newfield, Me.; Shover’s Valley, Carlisle and Doubling Gap, Pa.; Winchester and Warrenton, Va.; Greenbrier and Monroe Counties, W. Va.; Bath County, Ky.; White’s Creek near Nashville and in Granger County, Tenn.; Spartanburg, S. C.; Butts County, Geo.; Tallahatta, Ala.; Tampa, Fla.; near Bitter Creek and Great Salt Lake, Utah; along the Yellowstone River, Mont.; Jackson, Cal.

ACID OR ALUM SPRINGS.--These waters have a more or less sour taste and redden blue litmus-paper.

They are found at Byron and Oak Orchard, N. Y.; Blossburg, Pa.; Bath, Richmond and Rockbridge, Va.

MAGNESIAN OR EPSOM SPRINGS.--These have a bitter taste. To test any water for magnesia, add to a glass of it a solution of phosphate of soda and some hartshorn; if magnesia is present, the liquid first becomes turbid, and finally minute crystals fall to the bottom.

There are Epsom springs at Harrodsburg and Perryville, Ky.; Westport, O.; Raymond, Miss.; Orange County, Ind.; Scott County, W. Va.

SALINE OR SALT SPRINGS.--These contain a large percentage of common salt, and are recognized by their taste. They generally contain many ingredients, (generally seven or eight,) but the salt predominates. A well should contain at least ten per cent. of salt to pay for working. The Syracuse spring yields a bushel of salt to every thirty-three gallons; while the Great Salt Lake contains 22 per cent. Among the most important salt wells are those at Syracuse, Salina and Liverpool, N. Y.; Lubec, Me.; Shannondale, Va.; Bath County, Ky.; Athens County, O.; Hartford, Ind.; Saginaw, Mich.; Oneida, Idaho.

THERMAL OR WARM SPRINGS.--Any spring is so called, the temperature of which throughout the year is above that of the soil around it. They generally occur near the line of junction between the granite or igneous rocks and the stratified rock (slate or limestone) resting upon its flanks. The temperature of such waters in the United States ranges from 73 to 200 degrees, the latter being reached by the Geysers of Montana. Many iron and sulphur springs are also thermal.

The most noted warm springs are at Lebanon, N. Y.; in Bath, Berkley, Monroe and Scott Counties, Va.; Buncombe Counties, N. C.; French Brood River, Tenn.; Meriwether County, Geo.; Washitaw, Ark.; Salt Lake Valley, Utah; near Pyramid Lake, Nev.; along the Malheur and Fall Rivers, Or.; Lincoln Valley, Idaho; on Gardiner’s River, in Madison County, and especially in the Yellowstone Basin, Mont.

ARTESIAN WELLS.--To sink a flowing well with any reasonable prospect of success, it is essential that the spot selected should be lower than land in the vicinity, although those higher elevations may be several miles away. The layers of the rocks, also, should dip _towards_ the spot rather than away from it. The best indication, but not a certain one, is a _great_ basin-shaped valley, to the centre of which the rocks dip on one or more sides. Sandy, lime and slate rocks are more propitious than granite.

OIL WELLS.--Where there are marks of disturbance and misplacement of the rocks, there the experienced sink wells. Rugged hills and sharply-defined valleys are, generally, signs of such dislocation. The line or “break” from which the rocks dip like the roof of a house is considered most favorable. There is no such thing as an “oil rock,” for the oil is found at different depths, and the fissure containing it is more or less vertical. In Pennsylvania, the greatest flowing wells have been found in the third sand rock. No limestone has afforded any large supply of oil. Coal in no large quantities is ever found upon or in the immediate vicinity of the oil territory. The “show of oil” increases in value as a sign, with the depth at which it is found. Especially is the finding of a large amount of imprisoned gas, though no oil may be present, regarded as a good indication that oil is near. In the bituminous coal region, a gas spring indicates the probable existence of oil in the rocks below. But generally, “surface shows” are seductive. The great oil belt runs south-westerly from Oil Creek, Pa., to Burning Springs, West Va. But Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Missouri, Texas, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Southern California are also rich in petroleum.