Page 126 - 1915, Springs of CA.

118 SPRINGS OF CALIFORNIA.
in a southerly direction, and between 235 and 350 yards east of the
southernmost of these are four other hot pools. The highest tem-
perature recorded was 165°, and the total flow, which comes mainly
from the hottest spring, is about 125 gallons a minute. In 1909
there was a small bathhouse at one spring; a large warm pool was also
occasionally used for bathing and a hot one was employed for scald-
ing hogs. The water has been used to some extent, half a mile or more
away, for garden irrigation.
As at Bassett Hot Spring, the hot water of the Stonebreaker
springs probably rises from tuffaceous sandstone that underlies the
meadow alluvium, for the sandstone is exposed in a hill and in gullies
near by. Along Pit River at Bieber are good exposures of diatoma-
ceous earth, whose presence, as well as that of the sandstone, indi-
cates that the valley was formerly occupied by a lake.
HOT SPRINGS IN LITTLE HOT SPRING VALLEY (MODOC 3).
About 16 miles in a direct line, or 27 miles by road, northwest of
Bieber hot water rises on the eastern side of Little Hot Spring Valley
at two points, about 60 yards apart, at the base of low basaltic
slopes. Much seepage water is added from a strip of marshland, and
the resulting stream discharges about 225 gallons a minute. In the
northern of the two springs a temperature of 127° was recorded. Its
water is used for laundry purposes. At the lower spring, where a
temperature of 170° was noted, a hotbed for vegetables has been con-
structed. Like that of the Bassett and Stonebreaker springs the
water has no noticeable odor or taste, though small amounts of cal-
cium or magnesium salts are deposited on stones along the stream. -
Faults in Big Valley and in Little Hot Spring Valley are not known
to have been recognized, but the rise of comparatively pure, hot
water in these valleys hardly indicates that the rocks are sufficiently
open to permit atmospheric waters to reach the deeper, heated portion
of the lava mass and then to return to the surface.
KELLYS HOT SPRING (MODOC 4).
Along the upper course of Pit River hot water rises at several places,
most notably at Kellys Hot Spring (PI. V, A, p. 50) 4 miles north-
west of Canby or 21 miles west of Alturas. A pool about 12 yards in
diameter is here formed in a semicircular depression in the alluvium
of the northern side of the river valley. In the center of this pool
water rises with such force as to dome up about a foot high. It is
said that the water was formerly thrown to a height of 2 or 3 feet, but
its action has been subdued by throwing stones into the center of the
pool. The water has been locally considered to be several degrees
above the boiling point, but a temperature of 199^° in the pool 6 feet
from its edge, at a place where the water was 1 foot deep, was the