Exploration of the Red River of Louisiana, in the year 1852 / by Randolph B. Marcy ; assisted by George B. McClellan. Page: 107 of 368
xv, 286 p., [65] p. of plates (1 fold.) : ill., maps ; 24 cm.View a full description of this book.
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GYPSUM BEDS.
91
such is not the fact, as all the principal branches above Cache creek
have their origin in the eastern borders of the tablelands of New
Mexico, where there are no mountains. We, however, observed frequent
and copious rains in the vicinity of the Witchita mountains during the
season of the June flood; and I am of the opinion that here is the
Eource whence much of the water is derived.
As the water in the river has a very bitter and disagreeable taste, it
has been conjectured that it passed in its course through extensive salt
plains; but this I also found to be an error. We saw no deposite of
chloride of sodium in the vicinity of the river; the peculiar taste being
communicated by ingredients that it receives in flowing for a hundred
miles over a gypsum formation. An analysis of this water, under the
direction of Dr. Clark of Amherst College, gives the following results,
from which it will be seen that the per-centage of salt is small :*
Weight of water in fluid ounces
4.
Weight of water in fluid grammes
127.800
Weight of chlorine present -
.051
Weight of lime
.
033
Weight of sulphuric acid
.095
Sulphates of soda and magnesia
.168
Regarding the lime as a sulphate, and the residue of sulphuric acid as
united with magnesia, and the chlorine as united with the sodium, we
have the following results:
Weight of sulphate of lime
-. .080
Weight of sulphate of magnesia
.073
Weight of chloride of sodium
.084
Weight of the whole
.237
Per-centage of matter in solution
19
This gypsum range forms an immense belt, which extends across the
country for some four or five hundred miles. Col. Long speaks of seeing
it upon the Arkansas; and I have myself passed through it at four other
different points south of this, embracing a range of some three hundred
miles. It is regarded by Dr. Hitchcock as the most extensive deposite
of this mineral in North America. I have everywhere found it char'I
have understood, since our return, that the Indians have recently discovered
a deposite of salt (chloride of sodium) about three miles to the south of our return
route, near the western extremity of the Witchita mountains.
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Marcy, Randolph Barnes. Exploration of the Red River of Louisiana, in the year 1852 / by Randolph B. Marcy ; assisted by George B. McClellan., book, 1854; Washington, DC. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6105/m1/107/: accessed March 29, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .