Hydrotherapy at Saratoga; A Treatise on Natural Mineral Waters, by J.A. Irwin (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. GEOLOGICAL CONDITIONS AT SARATOGA. Cracks and disturbance of strata are termed by geologists "faults." They vary from immense rents and spacious caverns to tiny crevices, running in all directions through colossal layers of rock. It is easily understood how water imprisoned?often under high pressure, between the less pervious strata?should find at these points a means of escape, and thus make its way upward. As a matter of fact it is the presence of geological faults of some degree which determine, in most parts of the world, the emergence of mineral springs. At Saratoga there is a geological " fault " of extensive proportions?the result of some terrific upheaval long ago. Originally a huge irregular fissure of incalculable depth, and extending through the valley many miles to the northeast and southwest of where the village of Saratoga now stands, it is probable that both sides of the chasm were depressod many thousand feet below their pristine horizontal; but the eastern edge sunk considerably lower than the western, so that when, during subsequent centuries, the interspace became filled with calcareous deposits, the long-parted strata no longer occupied corresponding levels; but those to the eastward lay not less than fifty feet below their counterparts upon the other side. The accompanying cut, modified from one by Professor Chandler, fairly illustrates the situation. Captain Butler, in his essay on this subject, notes two particularly interesting local circumstances: (1) That all the springs which have appeared or been discovered, at or near Saratoga, are to the eastward of the fault; whileupon the western side, although every effort has been made and the drill sunk through the rock at various points to a depth of one thousand feet, no mineral wa...