ANALYSIS OF A PECULIAB SOIL. Jg] 



if we may jnclge from circumstances of situation, this soil 

 is removed beyond the reach of any direct or assignable 

 influence, which the river can have upon it. I collected a 

 sufficient quantity of this soil with a view of examining it 

 at my leisure. 



It lias a peculiar smell — distilled water, tliat had stood Treated with 

 upon soaie of it in the cold^ instantly reddened litmus paper. ^° * water, 

 I extracted all that was soluble in this soil by distilled wa- 

 ter. A portion of this solution was gradually evaporated in and partof th« 



a retort: what came over into the receiver, examined from "o^"^'"" eva- 



11 -It f pt>''ated, 



tmie to time, proved to be pure water, untd the contents ot 



the retort were reduced to a small compass, and bei^an to 



assume a thick consistence: then the fluid, which distilled yielded muri- 



orer, acquired the properties of an acid. And the modes atic acid. 



of proof usually resorted to announced the acid to be the 



muriatic. 



The common reaoents, employed upon another portion Tests indicat- 



of this solution, indicated the presence of the sulphuric ^\ ^ T^^"" 



. , plmnc acid, 



and the muriatic acids, of lime and of some other earth or lime and other 



earths, and of the oxide of some me^al. For liquid ^^r'^^s, and 



1 • • an oxide. 



prussiate of potash, when dropped into it, caused an abun- 



ds^pt greeniih white precipitate ; and spirituous tincture 

 of galls, after a time, produced a turbldness, and a green- 

 ish gray matter was deposited. 



The solution is, at first, colourless and transparent: if 

 it be evaporated, it gradually contracts a brownish hue: ■ 

 and vegetable extractive matter is deposited on the sides of Veg^etable ex* 

 the vessel. Sulphate of lime is first separated. When this pf^^j^ ofiime 

 substance has ceiised to be produced, beautiful crystals of 

 muriate of soda make their appearance: when these, by muriate of 

 farther evaporation, have been exhausted, the remaining' 

 fluid cannot be brought to ]>roduce any other crystallized 

 salt. It has a brownish tint, its transparency is in some 

 measure impaired, and it strongly reddens paper stained 

 blue by litmus. 



'If some of the solution be evaporated nearly to dryness. The sokition 

 alcohol digested upon the mass separates sulphate of lime f^'i*P"'»'e'^> 

 and muriate of soda. What the alcohol has dissolved con- :,ddcd. 

 fists of muriates, and vegetable extractive matter, for the 

 fluid is brownish. It strongly reddens litmus paper. . * 



If 



