Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-03-13
Natural Wonders in Texas.

Sour Lake is circular pool OF all
acre or two in extent, situated in q
depression on the most elevated tract
of land in = wide scope of country.
1t rises above the contiguous territory
as an island in the sea rises above the
waters. Now conceive a depression
in the centre of our island, filed with
bubbling, boiling pond, as a well,
surrounded by dense forest, and we
have Soul Lake and its photography.
On the edges of the lake or pool are
situated most of the wells, five OF SIX
feet in depth, with plank curling.
Some of these are in a vigorous state
of ebullition, while Others have very
little ebullition. This ebullition is
nothing but currents of gas escaping
from the bowels of the earth. This
is made apparent by a common expert.
ment here. Take common fruit-can
open at one end, and small hole
bored in the other. Immerse half Of
it in the water where the ebullition is
going on, and then touch lighted
match to the hole. Instantly bril-
liant flame pops up, which will burn
unless blown out by the wind, as long
as you choose to hold the can in it's
position. There are jets of gas issu-
ing from the ground all about the pool,
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, by applying
a match to the surface where it is bub-
bling or boiling, but these flames
speedily go out.
Some of these wells throw up a yell
lowish and blackish oil, which collects
on the surface and may be skinned
like cream. This smellsvery strongly
of tar or naptha, but at little dis
lance 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 considerably infected with
the smell. This substance is gathered
here, and the people readily buy it at
a dollar quart. They say it cures
sores, cuts and burns. It is infiam-
mable and burns with great smoke.
1t is liquid carbon.
Others of the wells are as sour as
crab-apples, and these invariably
send up strong odor of sulphur. They
bubble and boil considerably, and
have a whitish appearance, as if pull
verised chalk had heen stirred up in
them. This is white sulphur. They
have a slight taste of the fluid carbon.
These are said to act powerfully upon
the liver, and several have said no
case of dyspepsia could withstand
them. Then there is another we'll
that is strongly impregnated with
iron. Its waters are distinctly marked
from the others in appearance, being
exceedingly soft and limpld.
There is another chair or pool,
which, if what is said of it be true,
is, if not the Anost remarkable, yet
certainly destined to be the most
renowned Of all. They call it
youth and Beauty" 1t deposits a
peculiar sort of sediment on its bot
tom, which, as they say, has the
remarkable property of identifying
the skin and removing freckles. 1t
is said that this depositi is so much
in demand that it is not always easy
to keep a supply of it during the
watering season.
The sight here is really a glorious
one for a watering place; a great
prairie to the south filled with fra
GRANGE and wild-fowers, and a great for
est in every other direction, penetrated
with labyrinthine walks, oaks, mag
nolias, myrtles, hollies, beeches, and
naples and gums, and vines without
end. How easy it would be to light
all this extensive ground into blaze
of glory at night, by utilizing the gas
that pours in torrents out of the
earth.