Page 257 - 1915, Springs of CA.

CARBONATED SPRINGS. 239
CARBONATED SPRINGS IN SODA SPRING FLAT (MADERA 5).
Two miles south of the spring near Pumice Flat is a meadow known
as Soda Spring Flat, which is a favorite camping place with fishermen
because of its nearness to the river and the good camping facilities
that it affords. On its western side, at the bank of a creek that joins
the river a short distance farther down, there is a small carbonated
spring that is well known to campers. It yields perhaps 2 gallons a
minute of cool, strongly carbonated water. A small pool 12 yards
farther downstream yields a seeping flow of distinctly carbonated
water. About the same distance northwestward, upstream from the
main spring, there is another small pool of slightly carbonated water.
Two other larger pools, that are sunk below the turf of the meadow
and are 100 and 150 yards northward from the main spring, also con-
tain distinctly carbonated water, and the gravel in them is stained
with iron.
The waters in the upper two of the small pools issue from soil and
gravel along the stream bank, but that in the lower one issues directly
from a bank of columnar lava that is exposed for some distance along
the canyon, beneath higher slopes of granitic rock. The columnar
character of the lava is exceptionally well shown half a mile south of
the springs, at the Devils Post Pile, where it forms a bluff.
The association of the carbonated springs with lava was referred
to in the description of Reds Meadows Hot Springs (Madera 6, p. 55),
which are about 1J miles southeast of Soda Spring Flat. The asso-
ciation is worthy of mention again here, although the same close
relation of lava to the existence of carbonated springs was not
observed at all of the carbonated springs in the high Sierra.

CARBONATED SPRING IN FISH VALLEY (FRESNO 1).
At the eastern end of Fish Valley, 7 miles in a direct line (nearly
11 miles by trail) southward from Soda Spring Flat, a carbonated
spring forms a pool 2| feet in diameter about 20 yards east of the
trail and 4 yards east of a large pine tree at the base of a granitic
knoll. The water is cool, strongly carbonated, and deposits some
iron, but there is only a seeping flow. A small amount of lime car-
bonate has been deposited around the basin, and 25 yards eastward
on the side of the knoll there is a low mound of the material 10 yards
across. No water now issues from the mound, but it was evidently
deposited at a former outlet of the spring. The rock of this region is
massive granite and forms a cliff south of the spring that compares
favorably in height with the lesser cliffs of Yosemite Valley.