322 Contributions to Physical Geography. 



Those at Bristol, ten miles S. W. of Canandaigua, are situat- 

 ed in a ravine on the west side of Bristol Hollow, about half 

 a mile from the north Presbyterian Meeting-house. The ra- 

 vine is formed in clay-slate, and a small brook runs throuo-h 

 it. The gas rises through fissures of the slate from both the 

 margin and bed of the brook. Where it rises through the 

 water it is formed into bubbles, and flashes only when flame 

 is applied; but where it rises directly from the rock, it burns 

 with a steady and beautiful flame, which continues until ex- 

 tinguished by storms or by design. 



The springs of Middlesex (twelve miles south from Canan- 

 daigua,) are from one to two miles south-west of the village of 

 Rushville, along a tract nearly a mile in length, partly at the 

 bottom of the valley called Federal Hollow, and partly at an 

 elevation of forty or fifty feet on the south side of it. 



These latter springs have been discovered within a few years, 

 in a field which had long been cleared, and are very numerous. 

 Their places are known by little hillocks a few feet in diame- 

 ter and a few inches high, formed of a dark bituminous mould, 

 which seems principally to have been deposited by the gas, 

 and through which it finds its way to the surface in one or 

 more currents. These currents of gas may be set on fire, and 

 will burn with a steady flame. — In winter they form openings 

 through the snow, and being set on fire, exhibit the novel and 

 interesting phenomenon of a steady and lively flame in contact 

 with nothing but snow. In very cold weather, it is said, tubes 

 of ice are formed round these currents of gas (probably from 

 the freezing of the water contained in it) which sometimes rises 

 to the height of two or three feet, the gas issuing from the 

 tops ; the whole, when lighted in a still evening, presenting 

 an appearance even more beautiful than the former. 



Some time since, the proprietors of this field put into opera- 

 tion a plan for applying the gas to economical purposes. From 

 a pit which was sunk in one of the hillocks, the gas is con- 

 ducted through bored logs, to the kitchen of the dwelling, and 

 rises through an aperture, a little more than half an inch in 

 diameter in the door of a cooking stove. When inflamed, the 

 mixture of gas and common air in the stove first explodes, and 

 then the stream burns steadily. The heat evolved is consi- 



