Hot Springs

“ Elsewhere throughout the park the innumerable hot springs seem to be less charged with depositable matter; elsewhere they build no terraces, but bubble joyously up through bowls often many feet in depth and diameter. Often they are inspiringly beautiful. The blue Morning Glory Spring is jewel-like rather than flower-like in its color quality, but its bowl remarkably resembles the flower which gives it name. Most springs are gloriously green. ”

“ This is conveyed to distributing reservoirs in the east end of the valley. On a terrace in the foot-hills a few miles to the north, 2000 feet above the sea, are the Arrow-head Hot Springs (named from the figure of a gigantic "arrow-head" on the mountain [Pg 118] above) , already a favorite resort for health and pleasure. The views from the plain of the picturesque foot-hills and the snow-peaks of the San Bernardino range are exceedingly fine. ”

“ The transient population numbers more than 100,000 annually. Hot Springs is served by the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, the Little Rock & Hot Springs Western, and the St Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern railways. The city lies partly in several mountain ravines and partly on a plateau. A creek, flowing through the valley but walled over, empties into the Ouachita river several miles from Hot Springs. ”

“ It is the opinion of scientific men resident in the valley, and others who have considered the subject, that the wooded heights surrounding Hot Springs are of vital importance to the comfort and health of its inhabitants, and that the government could confer no greater boon on the town than to secure by reservation the forests which crown the mountains in their vicinity. ”

“ Suddenly the driver strikes one of the shining white rocks on which the water breaks into foam, and then a general commotion ensues in the stage, and before the passengers have settled back in their original places, a soft, sad music seems to float toward us on the air—the rustling of the gray-green pines that overhang the last rise in the road, and shade so romantically the white cottages clinging to the mountain-side, and built on the plateau that is crowned by the hotel and gardens of the Gilroy Hot Springs. ”

“ Long before you reach the neighborhood of the Hot Lakes you find steaming springs, and there is hardly one of them that is not credited with some wonderful healing properties. On an area of a hundred and fifty square miles there are many thousands of hot springs of all temperatures from tepid to boiling, and of all sorts of composition. ”

“ Houses stick on the sides of the hills, perch on terraces, nestle in the ravines. Nothing is regular, nothing is as might have been expected, but it is all interesting, and promising of something pleasing and picturesque in the future. All the springs, except one, on Hot Springs Mountain are hot, with a temperature ranging from 93° to 157° Fahrenheit; there are plenty of springs in and among the other hills, but they are all cold. It is estimated that the present quantity of hot water, much of which runs to waste, would supply about 19,000 persons daily with 25 gallons each. ”

“ A half mile from its source this brook became quite broad and deep. It ran through a pasture, and cattle came and slaked their thirst.
Hot springs are numerous in all parts of the world. The water of most hot springs has decided mineral properties, for the reason that hot water passing through mineral strata will dissolve more of the mineral substance than cold water. Many hot springs are great resorts for invalids because of their curative properties. The famous Silver Spring in Florida has the dimensions of a small lake, and boats sail over it, and a small river continually flows from it. ”

“ The Mammoth Hot Springs have built themselves up an enormous mound that stands there above the village on the side of the mountain, terraced and scalloped and fluted, and suggesting some vitreous formation, or rare carving of enormous, many-colored precious stones. ”

“ Entering the neighboring valley, and crossing the bed of another lake, after a hard day's travel over ground of yielding mud and sand, we reached the springs, where we found an abundance of grass, which, though only tolerably good, made this place, with reference to the past, a refreshing and agreeable spot.
This is the most extraordinary locality of hot springs we had met during the journey. The basin of the largest one has a circumference of several hundred feet; but there is at one extremity a circular space of about fifteen feet in diameter, entirely occupied by the boiling water. ”

“ This spring is to-day the renowned Hunter Hot Springs, a place of resort for its mineral properties, where hundreds of people are treated every year for rheumatism and kindred diseases. It has fine hotel accommodations and all modern conveniences and improvements for the comfort of its patrons. ”

“ Weeks of labor, with relays of men, might not reach them all. And it was time to let the outside world know. The telephone lines were down, the telegraph out of commission, and Tisdale, with the baby to bear him company, started to carry the news to Scenic Hot Springs.
It had grown very cold when he rounded the top of the gorge. The arrested thaw hung in myriads of small icicles on every bough; they changed to rubies when the late sun blazed out briefly; the trees seemed strung with gems; the winds that gathered on the high dome above the upper canyon rushed across the summit of the ridge. ”

“ Massive rocks rise on high, 360 and the road is often on a shelf cut into their face, the river boiling along far down below. Then the valley broadens, and here, in a lovely vale surrounded by the mountains, are the North Carolina Hot Springs, a popular resort, with a climate even milder in winter than at Asheville, as the Great Smoky range protects it from the northern blasts. ”

“ Soon Sol's rays had reached the western horizon. Mountain shadows now appeared reaching westward to the limit of our vision; the jagged edges resting on hills and plains and valleys contributed to a changing scene, the memory of which will last so long as life is given.
Our selfish aim more than attained, we were satisfied and determined at once to descend to earth, from whence we came. Our determination being carried out, we reached Hot Springs at 8 p.m., and Tacoma three days later. ”

“ The national government maintains at Hot Springs an army and navy hospital, and a bath-house open gratuitously to indigent bathers. The business of Hot Springs consists mainly in caring for its visitors. Fruit-raising and small gardening characterize its environs. There are sulphur, lithia and other springs near the city, and an ostrich farm and an alligator farm in the suburbs. The finest of the novaculite rocks of central Arkansas are quarried near the city. ”

“ Six miles above the upper fall we entered upon a region remarkable for the number and variety of its hot springs and craters. The principal spring, and the one that first meets the eye as you approach from the north, is a hot sulphur spring, of oval shape, the water of which is constantly boiling and is thrown up to the height of from three to seven feet. ”

“ At a few yards from the hot springs is one strongly sulphuric and remarkable for its coldness. In the wild and mountain scenery of this lonely region, there is much of grandeur and novelty to fix the curiosity of the lover of nature. ”

“ READINGS IN PHYSICAL SCIENCE.
P. 255, c. 2.—“Foraminifera,” fo-rămˌi-nĭfˈe-ra.
P. 257, c. 1.—“Hot Springs.” These are in reality Artesian wells, the water rising from great depths. In some places the warm water is utilized, as in Würtemberg, where manufactories are warmed by the water sent through them in pipes. The water is usually pure and the temperature quite uniform. Among the most famous examples of hot springs are those of Arkansas—fifty-seven in number—those of Virginia, and the geysers of Iceland. ”

“ We arrive in Hot Springs late in the afternoon and look for a cabin for the night. All of them are filled up, so we look for a camp site. Evans Heights is too steep for our heavily loaded car, and we drive down to the Municipal Camp. After pitching camp we attempt to find out what there is in Hot Springs to see. We find that there is much and accordingly lay our plans for a big day.
After breakfast the first thing we do is to cross the railroad track on foot looking for petrified moss and wood. From the stream bed we get several particularly fine specimens of the moss. ”

“ The hot springs, which are of sulphureous quality, and have a temperature of from 109° to 113° F., are still much frequented, attracting annually many thousands of visitors. They are used for drinking as well as for bathing purposes. ”

“ Signs of hot springs are seen everywhere on the hills to the eastward of the vein, and hot springs that are still active are found in various directions, at the distance of a few miles, the most remarkable of which are those known as the Steamboat Springs; which, even at this day, are briskly sending up hot water, steam, and columns of heated gases through a fissure over a mile in length, in fact are actively engaged in the formation of a metallic lode. ”

“ Grand Canyon, the Upper and Lower Yellowstone Falls, the boiling pools, the paint pots, the cascades, Mammoth Hot Springs, the exquisite colorings of the mineral formations, Roaring Mountain, "Hell's Half Acre," the majestic mountain peaks and ranges, Rainbow Lake, the Punch Bowl, Amethyst Spring, and a thousand other things which so awed and inspired me that out of the depths of my being, I exclaimed, "What is man, that thou art mindful of him? ”

“ The face of the country was hidden by falling snow. We traveled along the bed of the stream, in some places dry, in others covered with ice; the traveling being very bad, through deep fine sand, rendered tenacious by a mixture of clay. The weather cleared up a little at noon, and we reached the hot springs of which we had seen the vapor the day before. There was a large field of the usual salt grass here, peculiar to such places. The country otherwise is a perfect barren, without a blade of grass, the only plant being some dwarf Fremontias. ”

“ Those at Hot Springs are famous for their medicinal qualities, and have led to the foundation there of a renowned health resort. The Ouachita Mountains have been shown to be the westerly extension of the south end of the Appalachian mountain system, and to have been formed at the same time and by the same causes that upheaved the Appalachians. ”

“ You follow the road by which you enter the ranch, to the left, and in a few miles' travel you bring up at Warner's Hot Springs, a resort famed for many years for the curative properties of its waters. The springs are now in charge of Mr. and Mrs. Stanford, and are kept in an admirable manner, considering all of the difficulties they labor under. The run from Los Angeles to the springs is about 140 miles, and can be made easily in a day. Once there, the choice of many interesting trips is open to you. ”

“ The geysers of Yellowstone Park, the hot springs of the Wamchuck district in Oregon, the Steamboat Springs of Nevada, the geysers of California, the hot springs of Salt Lake City, Monroe, etc., in Utah, and the Pagosa in Colorado, are only the most conspicuous among thousands of hot springs which continue in action at the present time. ”

“ The hut is only a few yards away from the Copland Hot Springs, so we were all able to enjoy the luxury of a hot bath; if a kindly Government some day provides a cold pool next door, into which one may take a refreshing plunge after being par-boiled, and endeavours to remove the sandflies which are all too active for comfort, these springs should prove a most popular resort. The view from them is superb, and the forest by which they are surrounded a veritable fairyland, in which one may wander for hours. ”

“ One of the regular summer resorts of this region where people go for fishing, hunting, and the healing of diseases, is the Green River Hot Springs, in the Cascade Mountains, sixty-one miles east of Tacoma, on the line of the Northern Pacific Railroad. ”

“ Fort Yellowstone is at Mammoth Hot Springs, where one gets his first view of the characteristic scenery of the Park,—huge, boiling springs with their columns of vapor, and the first characteristic odors which suggest the traditional infernal regions quite as much as the boiling and steaming water does. One also gets a taste of a much more rarefied air than he has been used to, and finds himself panting for breath on a very slight exertion. ”

“ Hot springs, possessing valuable medicinal qualities, are also to be found in many places, but the country people are totally ignorant of their properties, and take the waters indiscriminately for any ailments they may happen to have, and, in obedience to the old superstitious reverence for the spirits of the fountains, even drink from several different sources in the hope of gaining favor with their respective nymphs. ”

“ Riding as rapidly as the darkness made possible, we clattered into the deserted street at Hot Springs, and Fox cursed vigorously the negligent guard. The sergeant knew little of where Major Harwood had gone, as he had given no orders, and not even intimated the probable time of his return. ”

“ They are afoot, and can never overtake us. Don't lose your nerve, Noreen."
I mounted my own horse, and we rode out boldly across the open field. There was a narrow fringe of trees guarding the outer edge, and beyond these we came to the Hot Springs pike, clearly visible beneath the soft gleam of the stars. Satisfied that all immediate danger had been left behind, and eager to advance as far as possible before daylight, I urged the horses into swifter stride. It was, as I remembered, forty miles to Hot Springs over a mountain road. ”