Page 309 - 1915, Springs of CA.

SALINE SPBINGS. 289

Sulphur spring in Sulphur Meadows.
Sulphur springs near Glennville.
Warm, spring in Panamint Valley.
Tassajara Hot Springs.
San Jacinto Hot Springs
SALINE SPRINGS.
NUMBER AND DISTRIBUTION.
California contains no large saline springs nor wells that yield
brine which furnishes a commercial supply of common salt, but a
number of small, notably saline springs issue in the northern part
of the Coast Ranges, most of them in areas of unaltered sediments of
Tertiary and Cretaceous age. In the earlier slates of the northern
Sierra there are a few salt licks, or deer licks, and a few strongly
saline and alkaline springs also rise in the deserts of the southeast-
ern part of the State, where great evaporation has concentrated
the salts that have probably been leached from ancient sedimentary
rocks. Several of the springs have been commercially developed,
either as resorts or for the purpose of bottling the water. In the
following pages the developed springs are first described, beginning
with those in the northern part of the State.
TUSCAN SPRINGS (TEHAMA 5).
Tuscan Springs (PL XII, B, p. 200) are 10 miles northeastof Red
Bluff near the head of the canyon of Salt Creek. They are said to
have received their name because when they were first noticed a
salt that coated the surface resembled that at Tuscan, Italy. It is
also said that the first borax in the State was found here and that
borax has been found in the spring waters,1 but borates are not
reported in the available analyses. The property was early improved
as a resort for-the medicinal use of the water, and a three-story
hotel and a bathhouse were erected. In 1909 a large cottage and
several smaller ones furnished additional accommodations; gas from
one of the springs was used for lighting, and water from another
was evaporated in shallow troughs and the salt was sold for medicinal
use. The water was formerly bottled and marketed, but the sale
of the salt has replaced the trade in the water.
The canyon of Salt Creek widens at its head to a small valley or
amphitheater, surrounded by rugged cliffs,2 and the springs issue
along the main creek and its branches in this open area. As many
as 52 springs have been claimed for the locality, but the writer
1 California State Mineralogist Tenth Kept., p. 694,1890.
2 On account of its shape and its walls of tuffaceous lava, the locality has been described (California State
Mineralogist Tenth Kept., pp. 693-694,1890) as a volcanic crater, but the shales in the bottom of the am-
phitheater discountenance this hypothesis.
35657° WSP 338 15 19