Part 19

Blowout Mountains in the cascades above Breitenbush, Ore., is unmistakably one of the wonders of the cascades, consisting of about eight hundred acres of granite rock piled up in every conceivable shape. From all indications it has been caused by an accumulation of gas below, which bursting out threw the rock into the cañon, forming a beautiful lake from twenty to thirty rods wide and half a mile long, in which abound myriads of trout.

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A peculiar fish, of brown color, without scales, and weighing twenty-one pounds, was caught in a net at New Dorp, Staten Island, this week, by the lighthouse keeper. In forty years’ fishing the keeper has never seen a similar fish.

A MAMMOTH SPRING.

The largest and most wonderful spring of fresh water in the world is on the gulf coast of Florida in Hernando County. The Wekowechee River, a stream large enough to float a small steamer, is made entirely of water spouted from this gigantic natural well, which is 60 feet in diameter and about 70 or 80 feet deep. Chemists who have analyzed the water say that there is not a trace of organic matter in its composition, and that it is the most pure and fresh of any spring in America. A dime tossed into the spring can be seen lying on the bottom as plainly as it could in a glass of common well water. The steamer which makes regular excursion trips up and down the Wekowechee is often floated into the cavity of the spring, but cannot be made to stay in the center, as the force of the rising water forces it to the sides of the basin. The spring and 2,000 acres of land adjoining belong to two Chicago capitalists, who are making it a pleasure resort.

THE WORLD’S LARGEST SPRING.

At Mammoth Spring, Ark., and under the shadow of the Ozark Mountains, is the largest spring in the world. The water comes up in such a body that it forms a lake about the orifice. The output of the spring is 29,600,000 gallons daily. Records have been kept of it for ten years, and during that time the output has not varied 100 gallons a day nor the temperature a single degree. Winter and summer the spring remains at 59 degrees. The spring is evidently the outlet of some underground river.

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The Poncho springs in Colorado are all on the side of a mountain, and hot and cold water flows from the ground in places not more than three inches apart.

FRESH WATER FROM A SALT BAY.

From the Florida Times-Union and Citizen.

BELLEAIR, March 3.--The Eldridge spring is quite an attraction to the visitors; it furnishes drink water for the hotel. It is out in the bay, but is cemented up, so as to keep out the salt water, and throws up 100,000 gallons of water per day.

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A species of eyeless fish has been found in a subterranean boiling spring discovered in a Nevada mine.

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The motion of the earth around the sun is 68,305 miles an hour; over 1,000 miles a minute, or nineteen miles a second.

A STRANGE POND.

Hicks Pond, in Palmyra, Me., is a strange body of water. It is only twelve acres in area, but it is more than 100 feet in depth. It has no visible inlet, although a fair sized stream flows from it into Lake Sebasticook. The volume of its waters is not materially affected by either drouth or freshet, and the water is always cold.--Philadelphia Ledger.

WONDERS BENEATH THE SURFACE.

Workmen engaged in sinking an artesian well in Sandy Valley, near Niria, N. M., struck an open seam, from which a cold stream of air rushed with force enough to remove a 12-pound rock laid over the opening. The air was charged with millions of small yellow bugs, each having but two legs, no wings and a small red circle on his back. They lived but a few seconds after striking the warm outside air. Local scientists are puzzling over the question: How did they get so far down into the earth?--St. Louis Republic.

FISH IN AN OLD WELL.

Some queer fish were taken out of the recently reopened well on the United States fish station at San Marcos, Texas, says the Louisville Courier-Journal. There were several salamanders, varying in length from an inch and a half to four and a half inches. These creatures live on land or water, have human-looking faces, hands and feet, bulldog head, tail of an eel and body of fish. There were also large numbers of shrimps, resembling sea shrimps, only much smaller. It is an artesian well, and everybody wants to know where the creatures come from.

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A wonderful artesian well is in flourishing activity at Huron, N. D. It throws a stream 100 feet high, and the flow is estimated at from 8,000 to 10,000 gallons a minute.

ST. WINIFRED’S WELL.

One of the most copious springs in Great Britain is the famed St. Winifred’s well, near the town of Holywell, in Flintshire. The well is an oblong square, about twelve feet by seven, and its water, say the people of the district, has never been known to freeze. This latter assertion may be true, as besides containing a fair percentage of mineral matter that lowers its freezing point, the well is inside a beautiful chapel, which was erected over it by Queen Margaret, the mother of Henry VII. The water thrown up is not less than eighty-four hogsheads every minute, and the quantity appears to vary very little either in drouth or after the heaviest rain, showing doubtless that its primitive sources are numerous and widely distributed. Sir Winifred’s has been the object of many pilgrimages.

MONTEZUMA’S WELL.

One of the most pleasing natural curiosities in the Territory of Arizona is the pool of water known as Montezuma’s well. It is situated fifteen miles northeast of the old abandoned military post known as Cape Verde. It is 25 feet in diameter, and the clear, pure water is about sixty feet below the surface of the surrounding country. Some years ago certain military officers sounded the pool and found that it had a uniform depth of eighty feet of water, except in one place, apparently about six feet square, where the sounding line went down about 500 feet without touching bottom.