Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-07-31
HOT WATER.
A River of Boiling Water. and What a
Correspondent Thinks of It.
SANTA BARBARA, July p, 1850.

SANTA BARBARA, July p, 1850.
In California the wonders of nature lie
all around us. Some, like the Yosemite,
have received their Just need of admira-
ton while others, almost unknown to the
world, have been seen only by the &" favored
few who love nature well enough to PEN
citrate her inmost haunts and wrest from
her the secrets she coyly hides from eyes
profane and unappreciative. About twenty
miles from Santa Barbara, among the
mountains, is wonderful place, unknown
to the world, and almost to the
people living so near it, having been
seen by very few persons, though so full
of interest to the scientists and tourists.
Near the coast, in this latitude, three
ranges of mountains approach one another.
The Sierra, the oldest formation. in isolated
peaks, with lodges of gold-bearing quartz
on the western side, and silver ON the east
ern the San Rafael mountains, geologic
ally of more recent origin and the Coast
Range, the latest formation. 1t is in the
middle, or San Rafael Range, that this
wonder exists Tourists from the East and
from Europe rarely fail 20 visit the So
called "Geyser Region" of California, and
return to their homes,
FILLED WITH DELIGHT
AT the little jets of hot water, the puffs OF
steam and the sulphurous odors, which
furnish such material evidence that there
is very warm place somewhere. But in
this San Rafael range 5000 feet above the
sea, there gushes out from the mountain a
spring of water so large that by its side the
Geysers seem but the evolutions of tea
kettle struggling with the development
theory. This water, lS4o Fahrenheit
spreads at places, into river
forty feet wide, so hot that
hunters dogs, rushing blindly into it's
sparkling waves, drop dead instantly, and,
to make the water fit for bathing it must
cool itself for two miles from its source,
in the fresh mountain air-even then the
temperature is almost too high for COM
fort At the point of issue the stream
gushes forth with volume of 900 inches
OF water, now spreading into shallow
stream forty feet in width now confined
by precipitous banks within narrow,
swift channel, and again filling deep, pei
lucid pools, which some revolving bowlder
has carved in the living rock.
ICE COLD SPRINGS
Bubble up in all directions and mingle their
wasted GOODNESS with the fiery food. Over
hung by its mantle of steam, it courses
through the most beautiful aud romantic
scenery. Mountain SUBMITS, risingS, 000and
1900 feet high, meet the heavens around,
their bare peaks cleaning in the purple and
amethystine hues of an Italian atmosphere.
Range upon range of mountain and hill, APP
proach, recede and melt into the blue dis
lance. Lovely valleys, apparently inaccessi-
BILE as Rasselas, peep out from the sheltered
hooks the air, full of ozone, is pure and
life giving there is an abundance of game,
and, to the genuine hunter. the true griz-
ely will not refuse the fraternal hug Just
to show that call the worlds akin" even
in the matter of embracing. Is not this a
spot well worth visiting? Were | gen.
tleman tourist, with desire to go little
way out of the beaten track, | would GER
tainly climb the nights to this wonderful
boiling river. Being yet unchristened,
will take the liberty. though not able to
break the traditional bottle of champagne
upon its head, to baptize it from the name
of my informant, who has explored its
wonders, the River Swift "a name bav-
ing Dickens-like fitness for the torrents
rapid mountain fight.
X. V. DARLING.