Basin (bathroom)

“ What we see immediately before us is a basin, it may be a quarter of a mile, it may be half a mile broad, and two miles long; a wild expanse of broken granite rocks and boulders strewn hap-hazard, some of them showing the red of the syenite and others black and polished and shining in the sun; a field of rocks, none of them high, of fantastic shapes; and through this field the river breaks in a hundred twisting passages and chutes, all apparently small, but the water in them is foaming and leaping and flashing white; and the air begins to be pervaded by the multitudinous roar of rapids. ”

“ At the top is a basin of clear water, the overflow of which trickles over the edge in scores of little silvery rills; all down the face of the rock grows lovely maidenhair ferns and tufts of rushes. Finally each little thread of water falls into the pool below, which I roughly put at ten feet deep and forty-one feet long, its breadth being the same as the ravine which held it, perhaps twenty-one feet. ”

“ The hills rise abruptly; those we examined are of sandstone formation. The basin is very shoal, but there is a narrow channel in the centre, with from five to nine fathoms water. The shore, opposite the Bastion Hills, is low, and the gulf trends gradually round to the South-West for five miles, when it is contracted into a narrow communication, called The Gut, leading to an interior shoal basin, strewed with low marshy islands, which the tide covers. ”

“ Such examples, however, merely show that where a basin is so limited in size that the detritus is derived chiefly or exclusively from one formation, the prevailing rock will impart its colour and composition in a very decided manner to the loam; whereas, in the basin of a great river which has many tributaries, the loam will consist of a mixture of almost every variety of rock, and will therefore exhibit an average result nearly the same in all countries. ”

“ The most conspicuous topographic features of the better known portion of the Great Basin are long, narrow, and frequently sharp-crested ridges, with a gentle slope on one side and a steep escarpment on the other. The steeper side in a large number of instances is known to be the upraised side of a fault. Each of these basin ranges, as they are termed, may be considered as the upturned edge of a block of the earth's crust, in general from 60 to 100 or more miles long, and 10 to perhaps 20 miles wide. ”

“ I came presently into a hollow basin bristling with tall, brown, dry fronds about its edge, and I sat down under these to rest and cool. I intended to rest for only a little while. I put down my clubs beside me, and sat resting my chin on my hands. I saw with a sort of colourless interest that the rocks of the basin, where here and there the crackling dry lichens had shrunk away to show them, were all veined and splattered with gold, that here and there bosses of rounded and wrinkled gold projected from among the litter. ”

“ The water is agitated in the basin, it boils up suddenly, subsides, the earth beneath our feet trembles and a mass of steaming water rises in the center of the basin to an elevation of fifteen feet and overflows the rim with a noisy splash. ”

“ It curves with deep, clear fulness into an upper rocky basin. It gushes so firm and urgent against its walls that its reflected edges are seen to be heaped higher than the unchecked slide of its mid-current. ”

“ The diversity of scenery in the Great Basin is increased by mountains of volcanic origin, including several modern craters, some of which hold lakes, and by lava-flows of recent date, and by great alluvial fans or detritus cones which stream out into the valleys from the mouths of gorges in the bordering mountains.
The Great Basin proper, with its rugged topography and arid climate, is not an agricultural region. Small portions of it, however, when water can be had for irrigation, have been transformed into fruitful farms and gardens which yield bountiful returns. ”

“ But even if we suppose a basin of the hardest rock to be elevated at once, completely formed, from the submarine abyss where it was fashioned, the first shower of rain that falls upon it, after it rises to the air, will discharge its waters along the lowest lines of the surface, and cut those lines deeper, and so on with every successive rain. The disintegrated rock from the upper part of the basin forms the lower by alluvial deposit, which is constantly transported farther and farther until the resistance of gravitation and cohesion balances the mechanical force of the running water. ”

“ Their openings do not converge in the top as a jar or hogshead, but rather spread and widen, as if to expose the hollow as much as possible to the skies. Some have little falls into a larger basin, which receives their tribute, and detains it, having no outlet. Other large ones intermixed with little ones have passages from one to another, and, by successive falls uniting, transmit what they receive into one common basin, which has a drain to it, that serves itself and all the basins above it. ”

“ The “Basin” is a basin only in the sense that it is all lower than the ranges enclosing it—the Mogollon, the Matitzal and the Sierra Ancha—but its whole triangular area is so cut up by ravines, arroyos, small stream beds and hills of very good height, that it may safely be pronounced one of the roughest spots on the globe. ”

“ This basin, which had a depth of eight fathoms, with a rocky bottom in its centre, terminated, at its inner extremity, in a short passage or channel about half a mile wide between two bold rocky bluffs, beyond which another large sheet of water was to be seen; and toward this the gig was headed, the sounding-line being kept busy during the whole progress. As the gig advanced beyond the centre of the first basin, the water was found to shoal gradually, until exactly midway between the two bluffs, a depth of four and a half fathoms only was given by the sounding-line. ”

“ For example, the long basin of the Danube, the valley of the Rhine, the basin of Paris, contain a great variety of organic forms, which must have been peculiar to those arms and gulfs of the sea, as we find at this day peculiar shells in almost every partially insulated bay of the sea. But these tertiary tracts having been wholly raised to dry land, all their peculiar shells have perished; and the analogy of the fossil to recent types appears less than would be the case with strata like the subapennine beds, which are yet margined by the sea, out of which they were uplifted. ”

“ This depth of water, in violent agitation, even when the sluices are opened, and the water above the overflow let off, effectually prevents the possibility of seeing the bottom of the basin, but by sending workmen into the water, it was ascertained that the shingle has disappeared from under the foundations of the walls of the basin, in some places nearly as far as the men could thrust in their arms, and in one instance at least, a squared stone has given way. ”

“ The freshwater sediments of the Paris basin, studied in connection with those of Auvergne, Velay, and Cantal, offer a very complete view of the eocene lake deposits, and lead to the conclusion that the marine and freshwater strata of that basin are to be considered as marking sometimes the independent action of the sea and land floods in one basin, and sometimes their periodical alternation; the land floods always coming from the south, and the marine sediments from the north or west. ”

“ The people, however, seldom avail themselves of this bath.
On my return I had still to visit a basin with a jet of water, in a fine meadow near the church; a low wall of stone has been erected round this spring to prevent the cattle from scalding themselves if they should approach too near in the ardour of grazing. Some eighty paces off is to be seen the wool-bath erected by Snorri Sturluson. It consists of a stone basin three or four feet in depth, and eighteen or twenty in diameter. The approach is by a few steps leading to a low stone bench, which runs round the basin. ”

“ The basin is mostly circular, sending out a constant stream into the river fifteen yards wide, and ten or twelve in depth. The basin and stream are both peopled with prodigious numbers and variety of fish and other animals, as the alligator, manatee, or sea-cow, in the winter season: part of the skeleton of one, which the Indians had killed last winter, lay upon the banks of the spring; the grinding teeth were about an inch in diameter, the ribs eighteen inches in length, and two inches and a half in thickness, bending with a gentle curve—these bones being esteemed equal to ivory. ”

“ The series of rocks included in this district, are described as the Paris basin formation, where, amidst their fossiliferous remains, the genius of Cuvier shone forth and captivated the world by his wonderful disclosures in the science of comparative anatomy. The deposits occupy a depression in the chalk upon which they rest unconformably, like those of the London basin: they agree generally in their organisms, but differ considerably in the quality of their respective materials. ”

“ When the basset-edge of the strata is covered with gravel or sand, any body or stream of water will readily percolate downwards through it, and fill up the porous interstices between the coal-measures, till arrested by the face of a slip, which acts as a valve or flood-gate, and confines the water to one compartment of the basin, which may, however, be of considerable area, and require a great power of drainage. ”

“ The water of the spring deposits a copious concretion of carbonate of lime,2 which has accumulated on every side, until it has formed a large basin overhanging the stream; above which it is raised several feet. This basin is of a snowy whiteness, and large enough to contain three or four hundred gallons, and is constantly overflowing.
The spring rises from the bottom of the basin, with a rumbling noise, discharging about equal volumes of air and of water, probably about fifty gallons per minute; the whole kept in constant agitation. ”

“ As each shallow basin dries out, and after the frigid salt sediment, or crust, has been collected, it is scrupulously cleaned with a hand-whisk and refilled with a skin-bucket or two of brine. The basin is then left undisturbed, beneath blue sky and blazing sun, for the day or two required for the water to completely evaporate.
And thus the people of Tigguida labour constantly [126] in these workings, which provide their sole means of livelihood. Whether puddling clay, carrying water, sweeping out basins, or collecting the salt crust, they are ever busy at one ploy or another ”

“ These deposits, known as rock salt, occur in the Permian subsurface basin of west Texas and in the salt domes of the Gulf Coastal Plain. The Permian basin, which extends under parts of west Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Kansas, is now completely filled with sediments. It appears level and flat when you travel across it and does not look at all like a basin or a valley. During Permian time, however, this area was covered by a salty 66 sea. As the sea gradually dried up, the dissolved material that it contained was deposited as thick beds of halite, anhydrite, and other minerals. ”

“ When one has come from such degree, has sought above all earthly good, and earned, a social eminence such as Mrs. Garrison had attained, it will leave some unbending lines on lip and brow; the eyes will not melt easily, although it wrings one's heart to find that one's only child is, after all, an ingrained Basin; yet their features were the same, only Notely's were simple, expressive Basin eyes—hers had become elevated. ”

“ He led me to the margin of the basin of the great Geyser, which lies on the top of a gentle elevation of about ten feet, and contains the outer and the inner basins. The diameter of the outer basin may be about thirty feet; that of the inner one six to seven feet. Both were filled to the brim, the water was pure as crystal, but boiled and bubbled only slightly. We soon left this spot; for when the basins are quite filled with water it is very dangerous to approach them, as they may empty themselves any moment by an eruption. We therefore went to inspect the other springs. ”

“ The Paris basin is made of strata similar to those in the London and Hampshire basins. Strictly speaking, a structural basin is formed of rock beds which exhibit a centroclinal dip; an elongated narrow syncline or trough is not a basin. “Rock-basins” are comparatively small, steep-sided depressions that have been scooped out of the solid rock in mountainous regions, mainly through the agency of glaciers (see Cirque) . Lakes sometimes occupy basins that have been caused by the removal in solution of some of the more soluble constituents (rock salt, &c.) ”

“ Evidently, then, this basin was a fresh-water basin; these deposits are fresh-water deposits. But as the Valley of the Amazons exists to-day, it is widely open to the ocean on the east, with a gentle slope from the Andes to the Atlantic, determining a powerful seaward current. When these vast accumulations took place, the basin must have been closed; otherwise the loose materials would constantly have been carried down to the ocean. ”

“ If a lake, for example, be encircled on two sides by lofty mountains, receiving from them many rivers and torrents of different sizes, and if it be bounded on the other sides, where the surplus waters issue, by a comparatively low country, it is not difficult to define some of the leading geological features which must characterize the lacustrine formation, when this basin shall have been gradually converted into dry land by the influx of sediment. ”