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Show 199 The first spring met with was near that at Encino Ranoho. A pipe has been sunk in the rock, ana the water rising in it fills an octagonal stone tank of about 10 feet diameter and 12 feet deep. It overflows at the top and runs into an artificial pond. I do not know at what depth the pipe was sunk, but undoubtedly deep enough to pierce the Tertiary ( Pliocene?) limestone, dipping here from the mountains toward the plain. The next mineral spring met with was in a caftan leading from Montan's ranch to Cespe Creek Cafion. It is 8 miles below the ranch and about 4 miles from the junction of the two cafions. The water issues through four or five fissues in the granite, one of them about 20 feet above the bottom of the canon. Steam rises in thick clouds from the rocks, and has a peculiar odor. The rocks oyer which the water first flows are stained deep black, while those farther down in the stream have a bright red iron color. I do not know how to acoount for the black color unless it be a deposit of peroxide of manganese. The yield of water is about thirty gallons per minute, and its temperature was found 195° F. In the Ojai Valley, about 6 miles from its junction with the Santa Clara Valley, there are a number of natural petroleum springs. A well sunk yielded two gallons per minute. About 7 miles below KernYille, following the river, there is a hot spring, claimed to be a sulphur spring, but evidently is not, as it failed to blacken a bright silver coin left in the water for over half an hour. The temperature was 127° F., whilst the temperature of a spring not ten yards distant was only 70° F. The flow is about ten gallons per minute, the formation of the vicinity granite. A bath- house has been erected, and invalids luffering from rheumatism and other diseases come here for cure. At a place called Agua Caliente, which is about 30 miles from the town of Caliente, there is a warm sulphur spring. The water bubbles up through the soil in numerous places. The largest spring has been dug out and is used by the Indians for washing and bathing. A bright silver coin is blackened almost immediately when dropped into this water. The temperature was 80° F., and the flow not more than two gallons per minute. Another mineral spring was met with near the head of Walker's Basin. It issues from granite, and has a temperature of 100° F.; the flow is about three gallons per minute. A ranchman who lived near by built a little bath- house at the spring. APPENDIX H 4. RFPORT ON THE GEOLOGY OF THE MOUNTAIN RANGES FROM LA VETA PASS TO THE HEAD OF THE PECOS, BY A. R. CONKLING. NEW YORK CITY, April 25,1876. SIR : Beginning at the La Veta Pass and proeeeding south, the mountain ranges will be described in the following order: Spanish Peaks, Cuiebra range, Cimarron range, Taos range, Mora range, Santa Fe* range, and Las Vegas range. The Spanish Peaks form a minor range about 10 miles long. The peaks are two pyramid- shaped mountains and consist of pinkish trachyte. Perpendicular walls of trachytic rock diverge from the Spanish Peaks, extending into the plain for more than a mile in some cases. The walls are in general about 100 feet high. The top of the walls is flat and the jointed structure is well shown in them. In places these walls have fissures- breaks in the form of right angles, thus presenting the appearance of trap rocks. These rocky walls are dikes of trachyte upheaved through huge fissures in the earth's crust after the greater part of the Spanish Peaks had been formed. About 3 miles north of west Spanish Peak is a curious butte of basalt, having the form of a tower with a rounded top. The butte is about 250 feet high and stands alone in the midst of a plain. I propose the name La Torre for it. The south fork of the Cncharas River flows between the Spanish Peaks and the Cuiebra range. The river has out its way through a steep wall of gray sandstone running north and south, but forming a break in the wall large enough to admit the passage of a wagon- road which is much used by the settlers. This gap is called the " shut in/' At Willis ranch, on the north side of the Cucharas, a ledge of fine- grained drab limestone outcrops, but I was unable to define the limits of it. Following up the stream to the divide and a little beyond to the headwaters of the Purgatoire, the country is covered with a series of anticlinal ridges of white and yellowish sandstone with vertical joints, which rest on granite. The Spanish Peaks may be regarded as an outlier of the Cuiebra range, which will now be described. The Cuiebra range extends from Trinchera Pass on the north to Costilla Creek on the south. The predominating rock is grayish granite. Hornblende porphyry oci curs at various points. A series of low foot- hills of basalt bound the Culeora range on the west side, forming a portion of the plateau through which the Rio Grande runp. |