We walked over to the wagon road on the high ridge above the middle of
the bridge and going down the forest-clad slopes to the perpendicular
wall in which is the smaller of the great arches, admired from this fair
point of view the marvelous grandeur of one of the greatest natural
wonders.
The weather being perfect after a rain the day before, there was no need
of haste to get indoors, so we lingered into the afternoon and then
drove to the Mammoth Spring, in Arkansas, a short distance south of the
Missouri state line, where the Cave River, just visited, comes to the
surface in a bounding spring of great force. The distance being little
less than nine miles.
The basin filled by the Spring might be called a lake, as its size of
two hundred by three hundred feet gives it that appearance, and the
color is a remarkable deep blue. The volume of water is so nearly
uniform that the height seldom varies more than two or three inches,
but three years ago a storm of unusual violence carried out most of the
native fish, and in restocking from Government supplies, the clear, cold
water suggested an experiment with mountain trout which are found to be
doing well.
Where Mammoth Spring flows out its power is utilized by a flour mill on
one bank and a cotton mill on the other, and the water flowing on forms
Spring River, well known for the charm of its beautiful scenery.
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