258 M. Bischof on the Subterranean Course of Water, 



animals lying at the bottom. A small shaft was sunk at the 

 place, and, at a depth of 9 feet, a mineral spring, having abun- 

 dance of water and gas, was found. As the water, with its 

 gaseous exhalation, did not rise perpendicularly from beneath, 

 but sidewise from a cleft in Trass, the passage of the spring 

 was followed for some distance : it was found to continue its 

 course for 10 or 12 feet, in a nearly horizontal direction, and 

 probably proceeded much further in the same line. In this 

 case, one might easily have been induced to consider the disen- 

 gagement of gas in the small hollow as a gas spring, if the ex- 

 cavation had not shewn that it is a gaseous exhalation from a 

 mineral spring existing beneath. 



Although, then, from all these circumstances, it is very pro- 

 bable that most of the carbonic acid gas disengagements from 

 the earth, are nothing else than exhalations from deep-flowing 

 mineral springs, yet I will not assert that there are absolutely 

 no gaseous springs. In a mountain which has been cleft by 

 previous volcanic eruptions, by the elevation of half melted 

 masses, and by their subsequent cooling and hardening, it is 

 hardly conceivable that fissures which descend from the surface 

 of the earth to a more or less considerable depth, can be filled 

 with gas alone, and so form gas canals ; but it is rather to be 

 believed that they are filled with water, which absorbs the car- 

 bonic acid gas beneath, under a high hydrostatic pressure, and 

 again gives it off at the surface. On the other hand, in a moun- 

 tain not much cleft, the gas canals, which must be considered as 

 necessary beneath, may approach very near the surface, and there 

 unite with wider canals filled with water. We may Imagine 

 that, at this inconsiderable depth, only a part of the carbonic acid 

 gas will be absorbed by the water, while the larger portion, un- 

 absorbed by the resisting water, ascends, and appears at the sur- 

 face as a gaseous spring. Such relations seem to exist at Mein- 

 berg, in Lippe-Detmold. The mineral springs of that place are 

 remarkable for a very variable temperature, which, during the 

 year, ranges from 5° to 11° R. This variableness allows us to 

 presume with certainty, that the formation of the mineral springs, 

 that is, the absorption of the carbonic acid gas by the water, 

 roust take place very near the surface of the earth. We can 

 even assign a proximate depth. All springs which come from. 



