Blowout Mountains in the cascades above Breitenbush, Ore., is unmistakably one of the wonders of the cascades, consisting of about eight hundred acres of granite rock piled up in every conceivable shape. From all indications it has been caused by an accumulation of gas below, which bursting out threw the rock into the cañon, forming a beautiful lake from twenty to thirty rods wide and half a mile long, in which abound myriads of trout.
A peculiar fish, of brown color, without scales, and weighing twenty-one pounds, was caught in a net at New Dorp, Staten Island, this week, by the lighthouse keeper. In forty years’ fishing the keeper has never seen a similar fish.
A MAMMOTH SPRING.
The largest and most wonderful spring of fresh water in the world is on the gulf coast of Florida in Hernando County. The Wekowechee River, a stream large enough to float a small steamer, is made entirely of water spouted from this gigantic natural well, which is 60 feet in diameter and about 70 or 80 feet deep. Chemists who have analyzed the water say that there is not a trace of organic matter in its composition, and that it is the most pure and fresh of any spring in America. A dime tossed into the spring can be seen lying on the bottom as plainly as it could in a glass of common well water. The steamer which makes regular excursion trips up and down the Wekowechee is often floated into the cavity of the spring, but cannot be made to stay in the center, as the force of the rising water forces it to the sides of the basin. The spring and 2,000 acres of land adjoining belong to two Chicago capitalists, who are making it a pleasure resort.
THE WORLD’S LARGEST SPRING.
At Mammoth Spring, Ark., and under the shadow of the Ozark Mountains, is the largest spring in the world. The water comes up in such a body that it forms a lake about the orifice. The output of the spring is 29,600,000 gallons daily. Records have been kept of it for ten years, and during that time the output has not varied 100 gallons a day nor the temperature a single degree. Winter and summer the spring remains at 59 degrees. The spring is evidently the outlet of some underground river.