The hot springs of Arkansas, as they are : a history and guide / by Charles Cutter.

  • Cutter, Charles, 1837-1912.
Date:
1875
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The hot springs of Arkansas, as they are : a history and guide / by Charles Cutter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    turesque object. It is probable that this is the locality whence the name 1 Ouachita oilstone' was originally derived. [Another reason is given for the origin of the name, which will be found in the chapter devoted to hone and whetstones.] There is, probably, no portion of Arkansas that affords a greater variety of minerals than Magnet Cove. Here, in a circumscribed area of less than two miles, we found : Black garnet, crystallized. Talc. Green, yellow and black mica crystallized. Iron pyrites, crystallized and amorphous. Schorlamite, crystallized. Strontianite ? crystallized and amorphous. Quartz, crystallized. Arkansite, crystallized and amorphous. Lydianstone. Elceolite, crystallized. Agate. Actinolite Pyroxyne, crystallized. Epidote, ** Hornblende, Arragonite, Magnetic iron ore, and, no doubt, many other minerals exist, not yet enumerated. The most prevalent rocks are: Novaculite. Milky quartz. Hornblende rock. Quartzite. Chert. porphyry. Sienite. Burrstone. slate. Granite. Kieselschiefer. Schorlamite rock. The magnetic iron ore occurs in large bodies, occupying a surface area, a little to the centre of the Cove, of four to five acres, over which the whole ground is strewed exclusively with the finest specimens of this ore, much of which has polarity. The soil in this part of the Cove is of a dark chocolate-brown, from the large amount of oxide of iron present. Titanic acid is abundantly disseminated amongst the minerals of the Magnet Cove. It enters not only into the composition of the mag- netic iron ore, but occurs, crystallized in its purest variety, containing only a mere trace of silica. The specimens collected and analyzed appear, indeed, to be the purest form of Brookite or Arkansite on record, as the quantity of silica separated was almost inappreciable on the most delicate chemical balance; and neither oxide of iron nor alumina could be detected in appreciable quantities. In some parts of Magnet Cove the magnetic needle is strongly affected, not only in its vertical dip, but in its horizontal deflection. The Fourche Cove furnishes a very fine specimen of Kaoline, or porcelain clay, derived from the decomposition of felspar. This mate- rial seems to exist in considerable quantities at the locality where I had