Morning journal and courier., 1880-01-19
Price Four Cents.
Natural Wonders in Texas.
A Curious Lnke-WeIIs that Emit ssa,
 and Contain Sour Water.

A St4EsouD A1Ekhe-NW CHS Ihat Emit GsRR
 and Contain Sour Water.
 lLske Sour Letter to Galveston News1 have in my time been in many of the most remarkable places in the world and now have turned up, as think in that which is the most remarkable of all. Sour Lake is a circular pool of an acre or two in extent situ ated in depression on the most elevated tract of land in wide scope of country. It rises above the contiguous country as an island in the sea rises above the waters. Now conceive depression in the centre of our island, filled with @ bubbling, boiling pond, as round as a well, surrounded by dense for est, and we have Sour Lake and it's topogra- phy.
 On the edges of the lake or pool are situa ted most of the wells, five or six feet in depth, with plank curbing. Some of these are in vigorous state of ebullition, while others have very little ebullition. This ebuI- lition is nothing but currents of gas escaping from the bowels of the earth. This is made apparent by common experiment here Take Q common fruit can open at one end and small hole bored in the other, I'm merse half of it in the water where the ebullf- tion is going on, and then touch lighted match to the whole. Instantly a brilliant flame pops up, which will burn unless blown ont by the wind as long as you choose to hold the can ln its position. There are jets of gas issuing out of the ground all about the pooI. so that with your fruit cans and milk cans you may have flames without end You may even set fire to the pools or apparently do SO bubbling or boiling, but these flames speedily go out.
 Some of these wells throw up a yellowish and blackish oil, which collects on the surface and may be skinned like cream. This smells very strongly of tar or naphtha, but at little distance is pleasant to the nostrils The water on which this substance collects tastes precisely like the substance smells. He who drinks of it gets his whole body con siderably infected with the smell. This sub stance is gathered here, and the people readi- ly buy it at dollar a quart. They say it cures sores, cuts and burns. It is in1amma- ble and burns with a great smoke. It is, I suppose, liquid carbon.
 Others of the wells are as sour as crab ap- pies, and these invariably send up strong odor of sulphur. They bubble and boil con- siderably and have whitish appearance, as if pulverized chalk had been stirred up in them. This IS white sulphur. They have @ slight taste of the fluid carbon. These are said to act powerfully on the liver, and several have told me that no case of dyspepsia can with stand them long. Then there is another well that is strongly impregnated with iron. Its waters are distinctly marked from the others in appearance, being exceedingly soft and limpid.
 Then there is another we'll CT pool, which, if what is said to be true, is, if not the most remarkable, yet certainly destined to be the most renowned of all They call it 'Youth and Beauty" It deposits peculiar sort of sediment on it's bottom, which, as they say, has the remarkable property of beautifying the skin and removing freckles. I am told that this deposit is in so much demand that it is not always easy to keep supply Of it during the watering season.
 The site here is really glorious one for watering place great prairie to the south filled with fragrance and wild flowers, and great forest in every other direction, pene- trated with lsbyrinthine walks oaks, magno- lias, myrtles, hollies, beeches, and naples and gums, and vines without end. How easy would it be to light all this extensive ground into blaze of glory at night, by util- izing the gas that pours in torrents out of the earth.