Page 111 - 1915, Springs of CA.

HOT SPRINGS. 105

formerly obtained from higher slopes near the quicksilver tunnels,
and a few hundred dollars worth of gold is said to have been obtained
incidentally from one quicksilver working.1
Hot springs, from which water was formerly piped down the slope
to a bathhouse at the original Wilbur Hot Springs resort, still yield
a flow of several gallons a minute on the steep slope, and a short dis-
tance away a flow of about 10 gallons a minute at 140° tempera-
ture issues from the Judge Moore tunnel, which extends 200 feet into
the hill. The following analysis, made a number of years ago, prob-
ably is of water from the formerly used spring at this locality:

Analysis of water from original Wilbur Hot Springs, Colusa County, Cal.
[Analyst and authority, Winslow Anderson (1889). Constituents are in parts per million.]
Properties of reaction:
45
38
0
0
17
73
By Reacting
Constituents. weight. values.

304 13.23
7.4 .19
162 8.07
104 8.58
26 .94
36 3.95
Sulphate (SO4).. .................................................................... 910 18.95
Chloride (Cl).. ...................................................................... 209 5.90
Iodide (I)....... .................................................................... 10 .08
Carbonate (COS)..... ............................................................... 182 6.08
Silica (SiO2). ........................................................................ 119 3.95
2,069.4
290 17.01
The analysis indicates that the water is primary and secondary
saline in character. Iron, aluminum, silica, and hydrogen sulphide
are notably prominent. The water is evidently not nearly so strongly
mineralized as that of the Main Springs at Wilbur Hot Springs.
The spring known as the Big Pool is about 250 yards farther north-
west along the hillside and at the front of a large mining cut. Soft
mud surrounds and nearly fills this pool, which is about 15 feet across
and 2 feet deep. When visited in 1910 gas rising in the pool
caused vigorous ebullition in two places, and water 153° in tempera-
ture overflowed at a rate of perhaps 15 gallons a minute. The water
tasted strongly of hydrogen sulphide, ammonia, and salt. During
the operation of the mine this water was used in a mill near by, but it
rapidly corroded the machinery.
Two carbonate formations in this locality are of geologic interest
in connection with the springs. One, a hard, white material that
incloses fragments of shale, is best exposed on slopes below the Judge

i Fairbanks, H. W., loc. cit.