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chartrain, by a stream seven miles long, and three hundred yards wide, and divided by an island extending from the lake to within a mile of Pontchartrain, into two branches, of which the southern is the safest and deepest. Lake Pontchartrain is nearly of a circular form, forty miles in its greatest length, and thirty miles in its greatest breadth, and eighteen feet deep. From this lake to the sea is ten miles, by a passage called the Regolets, four hundred yards wide, and lined with marshes on each side. On the west side of the Mississippi are the lakes of Great and Little Barataria. The Catahoola Lake, sixteen miles long, and four broad, is the source of a stream of the same name, which, uniting with the Washita and Bayou Tenza rivers, form the Black river. This lake, during the dry months, is covered with the most luxuriant herbage; and is then the residence of immense herds of deer, and water-fowl, which feed on the grass and grain. The other lakes of Louisiana are Calcasin, Borgne, and Bistineau.

GENERAL REMARKS ON LAKES.

Extensive accumulations of water, surrounded on all sides by the land, and having no direct communication with the ocean, or with any sea, are called lakes. Lakes are of four distinct kinds. The first class comprehends those which have no issue, and which do not receive any running water. These are generally very small, and do not merit much attention. The second class comprises those lakes which have an outlet, but which do not receive any running water. These lakes are fed by a multitude af springs; they are naturally on great elevations, and are sometimes the sources of great rivers. The third class of lakes is very numerous, consisting of all such as receive and discharge streams of water. Each of the lakes of this class may be looked upon as forming a basin for receiving the neighboring waters; they have in general only one opening, which almost always takes its name from the principal river which flows into t. These lakes have often sources of their own, either near the borders, or in their bottom. The great lakes of North America are of this class, which in point of extent resemble seas, but which, by the flow of a continual stream of fresh river water, preserve their clearness and sweetness. The fourth class of lakes present phenomena much more difficult to explain. We mean those lakes which receive streams of water and often great rivers, without having any visible outlet. The most celebrated of these is the Caspian Sea; Asia contains a great many others besides. South America contains the Lake Titicaca, which has no efflux, though it is the receiver of another lake. These collections of water appear to belong to the interior of great continents; they are placed on elevated plains, which have no sensible declivity towards the sea, and thus afford no outlet. With respect to those situated in a hot climate, evaporation is sufficient to carry off their excess of water.

The physical phenomena which certain lakes present, have always excited the astoBishment of the multitude. Those of the periodical lakes are the most common. In Europe these are nothing but pools, but between the tropics these pools sometimes cover spaces of several hundred leagues in length and breadth. Such are the famous lakes of Xarages and Paria, inscribed on maps of America, and expunged from them by turns; it is probable that Africa contains a great many of this description. The depth of lakes varies infinitely, and cannot form a subject of general physical geography. The popular opinion, however, that there are lakes without a bottom, is erroneous. Those which have been considered as such, owe this character solely to the existence of currents which carry along with them the lead attached to the sounding line. The waters of lakes, being derived from springs and rivers, partake of their different qualities. There are some lakes, whose waters are extremely limpid, such as the lake of Geneva, and that of Wetter in Sweden; in the latter, a farthing may be perceived at the bottom of the lake, at one hundred and twenty feet depth; but the lakes whose waters are motionless, saline, or bituminous, may be looked upon as equally unwholesome with those of marshes.

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CHAPTER VII.-SPRINGS.

I. SALT SPRINGS.

In the United States, salt springs are very numerous. They sometimes flow naturally, but are generally formed by sinking wells in those places where salt is known to exist, as in marshes, salt licks, and other similar places. The country on the Arkansas river furnishes some salt; it differs however, from most other places in the United States, by existing in pools, and forming incrustations on the soil of plains and prairies. There is no salt obtained in Arkansas by boring, the usual mode of procuring it in other localities. There are numerous salt springs in Missouri; the working of many of them, however, has been suspended or relinquished, on account of the reduced price of salt. Large quantities of the article are still made at Boon's Lick, and near St. Genevieve and Herculaneum.

Salt springs are worked at Sciota; the quantity yielded, however, is comparatively small. There are no salt-works on the Tennessee river; but on the Holston, one of its tributaries, are extensive salt springs, situated near Abingdon, Virginia, and known by the name of King's and Preston's salt-works. These springs yield a considerable quantity of salt. Preston's works have been rendered less productive, by being diluted by a spring of fresh water flowing into the midst of the salt.

Salt springs are very numerous in Kentucky, Ohio, and Virginia. Springs holding salt in solution are common in various parts of the bituminous coal region of Pennsylvania. They are generally weak near the surface, but deep springs, disclosed by boring, are often strong. One of these, which contains as much salt as the ordinary water of Salina, was discovered by boring, about twenty miles from Montrose, bordering on the state of New-York. The most considerable saline springs are on the banks of the Conemaugh and Kiskeminitas, about thirty miles east of Pittsburg. These rivers for many miles wind through rocky ravines, bordered by hills of three and four hundred feet in height, that rise with steep acclivities, presenting mural precipices of grey sand-stone, in places jutting over the road and torrent. Large quantities of salt are made at these springs.

In the town of Salina, in the state of New-York, about one hundred and thirty miles west of Albany, are situated the most extensive works in the United States for the manufacture of salt from natural brine. The indications of that substance along the margin of Onondaga Lake are sup posed to have been similar to those found on the salt licks, so common in the interior of the country, and the knowledge of their existence was de'rived from the aborigines.

'One of the earliest settlers in the county of Onondaga,' says a writer in Silliman's Journal, 'has informed me, that to procure salt for his family, about forty years since, he, with an Indian guide in a canoe, descended a small river that discharges into the lake at its south-eastern termination, along the shore of which he passed, a short distance to the right, and, ascending a rivulet (now Mud Creek) a few rods, arrived at the spring or

natural discharge of salt water, which was obtained by lowering to the bottom, then four or five feet beneath the surface of the fresh water of the lake, an iron vessel, which, filling instantly with the heavier fluid, was drawn up and the brine poured out. In this way, he got enough to make on the spot, by boiling, and without any separation of the earthy impurities that were held with the salt in solution, a small quantity of brownish colored and very impure salt. Since that time other springs have been discovered at various and almost opposite points on the shores of the lake, and many wells have been sunk to procure brine for the manufactories at the villages of Liverpool, Salina, Syracuse, and Geddesburg. The wells did not exceed eighteen feet in depth, and in the strength of the water which they respectively afforded there was great difference, which varied much with the seasons, with this remarkable circumstance, that it sometimes diminished fifteen to twenty per cent., and in some instances, one third, as the adjoining lands, on the advance of summer, became drained; and the lake, which in the spring overflowed the wells, had subsided six or eight feet.' The salt springs of Salina are found on the margin of an extensive marsh.*

II. MINERAL SPRINGS.

The mineral springs in the state of New York, in excellence and variety, are unsurpassed in any part of the world. The most famous are called by the general name of the Saratoga and Ballston Springs, and are embraced in an extent of about twelve miles in the county of Saratoga. The first spring discovered in the neighborhood of Ballston stands on a flat. It formerly flowed out of a common barrel, sunk around it, without any other protection from the invasion of cattle, who often slacked their thirst in its fountain. Afterwards the liberality of the citizens was displayed in a marble curb and flagging, and a handsome iron railing. The curb and flagging were finally removed, leaving the railing, which still serves the purposes of ornament and protection. The spring flows now, probably

* Every fact which tends to disclose that hidden operation of nature, by which the salt springs of the west are produced, is interesting to the geologist. I took a specimen of the rock, called water limestone, from a hill adjoining Nine-mile Creek, a few miles west of the Onondaga salt springs. If this specimen be pulverized and examined ever so minutely, it presents nothing to the senses resembling common salt (muriate of soda.) I do not mean that the elementary constituents cannot be found in it, but I do not propose here to have any reference to a chemical analysis of the rock. On exposing a fresh fracture of a specimen from this rock, for two or three weeks in a damp cellar, it shoots out crystals of common salt, sufficient to cover the whole surface. It may be proper to state, that I have made the trial only in very cold weather; during which time a fire was sometimes made in the cellar room. I do not know, however, that these circumstances had any influence on the result. This proves conclusively, that one rock at least, reposing over the floor of the salt springs, contains in itself the materials for the spontaneous manufacture of salt. I say the floor, because I have ascertained that all the salt springs along the canal route from Lenox to Montezuma, are supported on the same continuous rock.

It has long been a prevailing theory, that a vast mine of salt exists in the vicinity of these springs, which is continually dissolving, and thus yields the supply of salt water. Much time and money has been spent without success, in boring to great depths, with expectation of discovering this mass of rock salt. But if such rocks as that of Ninemile Creek be found of sufficient extent, the origin of the salt water of the west will find a more satisfactory solution. And there may be many kinds of rocks, beside the water limestone, which contain the elementary constituents of common salt.-Silliman's Journal

from the place where it originally issued, some feet below the surrounding surface, which has been elevated by additions of earth, for the purpose of improving the road in which it stands.

Near this spring, in boring about six or eight years ago, an excellent mineral fountain was discovered at a considerable depth beneath the surface. Its qualities are said to be superior to those of the spring already mentioned, and, by many, its waters are preferred to any other in the village. The United States' Spring is situated at the east end of the village. Near this fountain, a large and commodious bathing-house has been erected; to which, not only the waters of this, but of a number of other adjacent springs, are tributary, for the purpose of bathing. Between the springs already mentioned, there was discovered in the summer of 1817, a mineral spring, called the Washington Fountain. This latter spring rose on the margin of the creek in front of the factory building; it flowed through a curb twenty-eight feet in length, sunk to the depth of twenty-three feet, and was liberated at the top in the form of a beautiful jet d'eau; but the spring disappeared in 1821. Numerous attempts have since been made to recover it, but they have proved fruitless. The principal ingredients of these waters consist of muriate of soda, carbonate of soda, carbonate of lime, carbonate of magnesia, and carbonate of iron; all of which, in a greater or less degree, enter into the composition of the waters, both here and at Saratoga. The justly celebrated springs of Saratoga are about six miles north-east of Ballston Spa. They are situated on the border of a valley, which bounds the village on the east, and form the continuation of a series of springs which first appear in Ballston about twelve miles to the south, and extend easterly in a semicircular line to the Quaker village. In the immediate neighborhood are about a dozen springs, the most celebrated of which are the Congress, the High Rock, the Flat Rock, the Hamilton, the Washington, the Columbian and the President. A cluster, known by the name of the Ten Springs, is found at the distance of a mile to the eastward.

The Congress Spring is situated at the south end of the village. It was first discovered about thirty years since, issuing from a crevice in the rock, a few feet from its present location. Here it flowed for a number of years, until an attempt to improve the surface around it produced an accidental obstruction of its waters, which afterwards made their appearance at the place where they now flow. It is inclosed by a tube sunk into the earth to the distance of twelve or fourteen feet, which secures it from the water of the stream, adjoining to which it is situated. Besides a handsome inclosure and platform for promenading, the proprietor has thrown an awning over the spring for the convenience of visitors.

The High Rock is situated on the west side of the valley, skirting the east side of the village, about half a mile north of the Congress. The rock inclosing this spring is in the shape of a cone, nine feet in diameter at its base, and five feet in height. It seems to have been formed by a concretion of particles thrown up by the water, which formerly flowed over its summit, through an aperture of about twelve inches in diameter, regularly diverging from the top of the cone to its base. This spring was visited in the year 1767 by Sir William Johnson, but was known long before by the Indians, who were first led to it, either by accident or by the frequent footsteps of beasts, attracted thither by the saline properties of the water. A building was erected near the spot previous to the revolutionary war,

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