"My native valley hath a thousand springs, but not to one of them shall I
attach hereafter, such precious recollections as to this solitary fount,
which bestows its liquid treasures where they are not only delightful,
but nearly indispensable."
So spake Sir Kenneth of Scotland in "The Talisman."
Surely the Christian knight, dragging his way across the sands of
Palestine, was not more pleased to reach the "Diamond of the Desert"
than we were to light upon this charming little oasis, hidden away in the
dreary solitude of the surrounding sandhills; the one spot of green on
which one's eyes may rest with pleasure in all this naked wilderness. At
the bottom of a hollow enclosed between two sand-ridges is a small
surface outcrop of limestone of similar character to that in which
Empress Spring is situated. In this is a little basin, nearly circular,
about 2 feet 6 inches in diameter and 3 feet deep, with a capacity of
about seventy gallons. This is the spring, fed at the bottom of the basin
from some subterranean source by a narrow tunnel in the rock, a natural
drain, not six inches in diameter. Through this passage, from the West,
the water rises, filling the rocky basin, and evidently at some seasons
bubbling over and filling the clay-pan which abuts on it on the Western
side. On the East side of the spring is an open space of sand;
surrounding it and the clay-pan is a luxuriant growth of pig-face - a
finger-like plant, soft, squashy, and full of moisture, but salt; it is
commonly seen on the margin of salt-lakes.
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