406 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



waters of the river, which issue forth much lower on the side of the 

 mountain, contain free sulpiiuric acid, whilst the water from these 

 lakes contain sulphuretted hydrogen. As the mouths are at very 

 different heights, it may be considered that the waters in them do 

 not communicate together, and arise from the melting of the snow. 



The Vinegar river receives its acids from ihe interior of the vol- 

 cano which abounds in sulphur, and of which the temperature 

 appears to be very elevated, though for many ages no luminous 

 phenomena have been observed on its summit. 



The crust of sulphur which covers these mouths is said to increase 

 to four feet in thickness in less than two years. The curate of the 

 village sometimes directs the Indians to remove this crust, thinking 

 that by thus cleaning the chimneys of the volcano, as he says, he is 

 rendering a great service to his parishioners and to the neighbour- 

 ing villages. Generally, the water in the basins stands at the 

 same height, but in 1790, the great mouth caused partial inunda- 

 tions. These M. Humboldt distinguishes very strongly from such 

 as are purely meteorological, as for instance, those of Vesuvius, 

 where, though sometimes torrents of water laden with tufa and 

 earthy matter descend, yet they originate, not from the crater or 

 from apertures in the mountain, but from rain produced by the 

 condensation of the vapours of the mountain. — Aim. de Chimie, 

 xxvii. 113. 



2. Sulphur Mountain of Ticsan — " In following the Cordillera of 

 the Andes towards the south," says M. Humboldt, " what was my 

 surprise, when on the other side of the equator, I found that the 

 celebrated sulphur mountain of Ticsan (lat. 2° 10' S.) between 

 Quito and Cuen^a, was not composed either of trachyte or lime- 

 stone, or gypsum, but of mica slate. This mountain of sulphur, 

 called Quell) by the Indians, is, according to my barometric mea- 

 surement, 1250 toises above the sea. It is composed entirely of 

 primitive mica slate, which is not even anthracitic as are the 

 transition varieties of this rock. In the ravines between Ticsan and 

 Alausi, it is seen reposing on gneiss. The sulphur is contained in a 

 bed of quartz more than 1200 feet thick, regularly directed N. 18" 

 E., and inclined like the mica slate 70*^ or 80° to the N.W. The 

 bed of quartz is worked open to-day. The side of Cerro Quello, 

 in which the works were commenced ages ago, is opposed to the 

 S.S.E., and the bed appears to prolong itself towards the N.N.W. 

 At the same time, sulphur has not been found at the surface of the 

 earth in that direction, at 2000 toises from Ticsan. The whole is 

 covered by a thick vegetation." 



Towards the end of the eighteenth century, masses of sulphur 

 were found from two to three feet in diameter ; at present, strata 

 much poorer are worked, the sulphur being disseminated through 

 them in lumps from three to four inches in thickness. It is ob- 

 served, that the sulphur increases in quantity with the depth of the 



