there was a furious little cauldron seething at 200°. Several of the springs had low forms of cryptogamic vegetation growing upon the walls of the basins, and, in some instances, confervæ were observed thriving in water of a temperature of 145° Fahr. Seventy or eighty rods from the mouth of the cañon, there is a jet of escaping steam, and a little farther on there is an escape-pipe, nearly ten inches in diameter, through which steam is forced out several feet. Part of the steam condenses at five feet from the orifice, the rest ascends as light vapor, and is borne away by the wind. The greatest degree of temperature observed was 206° Fabr., where there was, of course, as in the other cases mentioned, apparent ebullition from escape of gases. In no instance was the temperature of 500° noticed, which Mr. Bowles speaks of in his entertaining "Across the Continent." Obviously, this is a slip of a flying quill.

Upon the east and west sides of the cañon, at this point, the ground is made up of decomposing rocks of clayey consistence, and of various colors dependent upon metallic oxides; each little locality seeming to be a laboratory for the decomposition of silicates. Wherever the light soil was dry, there was no vegetation whatever; wherever there was a good degree of humidity, confervoid growths were scattered. Near springs, a few rods farther east, a species of grass, Panicum, was seen growing; and, in one instance, at the water's edge where the panicle was bathed in slowly-rising vapor. This species is abundant near fumaroles, which are little natural blast chimneys, lined with crystalline needles of sublimed sulphur.

"Across the Continent," p. 282. "They are of all degrees of temperature, from one hundred and fifty to five hundred.

This leads next to the subject of incrustations, which for our purpose we may divide into three groups, namely: silicic acid, sulphates, and sulphur. The first comprises the crystals of quartz, which are found upon slates embedded in the soil. They are minute, but very perfect.

The sulphates, such as crystals of ferric and magnesie sulphate, and the alums were not seen in their best estate. The rain of May 28th had dissolved the largest ones, and while we regretted this loss, we consoled ourselves with the thought that the rain, which had robbed us of our jewels, had added intensity to the chemical action going on around and below. It is stated upon good authority that the action is more intense during, or at the close of the rainy season, which is the winter of California.

The sublimed sulphur presents the two prevailing forms; namely, that which has crystallized with free access of air, and resembles the obtuse oblique rhombic prisms of sulphur familiar to chemists; and that which is produced under pressure, and has a slight inclination of the vertical axis.

In some limited localities there are effloresced salts, and pale, faded carbonates. At one spot, a light green cupric carbonate was partially covered with a darker green confervoid growth, and each shaded into the other like colors on a palette.

But the salts just referred to are those which have been left by the heavily charged water. Imagine, therefore, the variety of dissolved salts which must have been formed, by the over-heated steam and sulphur acids, from the rocks which are being so rapidly leached under pressure. The solutions are, almost in every case, acidulated by a high sulphur acid; free sulphur floats in the water, and

sulphydric acid escapes with violent ebullition. It must be supposed that in these acidulated solutions, the iron exists as a ferrous salt, since sulphydric acid has this reducing power.

In one spring, which is very nearly neutral, the iron has been incompletely precipitated and is suspended, in the agitated water, with other insoluble sulphides.

Another spring is strongly acidulated, and contains only the merest trace of the sulphydric acid, which everywhere fills the atmosphere. The rationale of the reactions observed at the Geysers is not obscure, but so far as the writer is aware, no careful analyses of the waters and sinter have been made upon the spot. The scrupulous care with which the geological survey of California is being conducted, warrants the conclusion that trustworthy examinations will be published in due time.

The writer is unwilling to conclude this imperfect sketch of one of the wonders of California, without bearing his personal testimony to the value of the labors of Professors Whitney and Brewer, and the hard-working

corps.

The first volume upon geology has been read and questioned in the presence of the Coast Range and Sierra, from Point Concepcion to the Oregon line, and it has, at all times, proved a reliable guide.

NOTE. — See, also, a very interesting article by Professor F. Shepherd, in "Silliman's Journal" for September, 1851, when the springs were far less easily accessible than now.

THE ENCAMPMENT OF THE HERONS.

BY W. E. ENDICOTT.

The

AN account of an encampment of the Herons may not be uninteresting to such as have never seen one. herony in question was in Norfolk county, Mass., until the present year; the birds have now, however, taken up their abode elsewhere, because of the almost ceaseless persecution they have suffered. The species was the Nightheron or Quawk (Nyctiardea Gardeni). The bird is by no means as graceful as the other herons in figure, being thicker, with a larger and clumsier neck; as to color, however, it is quite handsome, being white, slate, and lilac. It has the long nape feathers characteristic of the herons, rolled, as usual, into the likeness of a tube. The place in which they have hitherto bred is a swamp, wet, and difficult of access, with no turf to set foot on, owing to the shade of the swamp-cedars with which the quagmire is covered, whose slippery, mossy roots furnish a doubtful footing in some cases, and a formidable obstacle in others. The certainty of "slumping" through the moss, thereby going into the thick slime above the knees, the probability of missing one's footing, and going down, full length, on breast or back, and the prospect of hard and disagreeable work in climbing to the nests, are among the allurements to the herons' paradise. The birds undoubtedly built there in 1861, though they were not found until June, 1862, when a gunner, breaking in upon their fancied security, shot over twenty for sport, threw them into a pile, and left them.

All, of course, who cared for natural history, who were few; the idlers, who were more; and many who had

never killed anything larger than a robin, and now were all agog to cover themselves with glory by shooting a quawk, frequented the spot nearly every day during that summer. The first thing which called the attention of the explorer was the whiteness of the ground, owing to the excrements of the birds; the air, hot and close, was loaded with its keen, penetrating odor; the fine particles of it, floating in the air and coming in contact with the perspiring body, made one smart all over. There was also a smell of the decaying fish which lay around, some dropped by accident by the old birds (who, I believe, never stoop to pick them up again), and much more disgorged by the young when their tree was assailed. These fish were mostly such as could not be obtained in the ponds and rivers. I once saw a piece of a pout, and once a fragment of a pickerel, but most of the remains were those of herrings. On the branches of some of the trees I have seen eels hanging with their heads digested off. The rough nests were always built against the trunks of the trees, six or eight feet from the top; and sometimes two, three, or even four might be seen in one cedar. The light-green eggs were usually four in number, but I have seen five and six repeatedly, and, once, seven in a nest. The young are downy, soft, helpless things at first, but soon gain strength enough to climb to the upper branches where they hang on with bill and claws, and are fed by their parents till nearly full-grown. Two broods are often reared in a single year, and it is no uncommon thing to see four or five of the first brood sitting on the tree-top, while the nest below contains as many more of their younger brothers and sisters; both lots, of course, to be fed by their parents. They climb clumsily, and seem, at every step, to be in immediate danger of falling,