Western wilds

Western wilds and the men who redeem them. An authentic narrative, embracing an account of seven years travel and adventure in the far West; wild life in Arizona; perils of the plains; life in the canon and death on the desert ... adventures among the red - Page 377

372 WESTERN WILDS. valley some ten miles wide. The floor, so to speak, of this valley is iron; upon it is a heavy stratum of rich earth, and through it, in a hundred places, the subterraneous waters and gases have forced their way. The plain is dotted by soda mounds from five to thirty feet in height, and every- where upon and among them are the soda- fountains. Some boil furiously with a loud, bubbling noise and escape of gas ; SHOSHONEES WITH ANNUITY GOODS. others show but a faint effervescence ; some are always calm, and never overflow, while others send out large and constant streams, and still others sink a foot or two when the air is cool, and rise to an overflow when it is warm. The springs on the soda mounds, are mere tanks, but a few inches wide, sending out such faint streams that all the solid contents are precipitated, and the water quite evaporated before reaching the plain. Some of the mounds have risen so high that the water has broken out elsewhere, and thus new mounds are being slowly built. In some springs the chemical mixture is pure soda, in others pure iron, in still