and Uieir Connexion zoiih Acidulous Springs. 351 



part of the mountain of Hagen, the lower limit of the limestone 

 is at an absolute height of 280 feet, and almost in the bottom 

 of the valley, while it rises in the Kellerser-Feld to 560 feet. 

 It appears, therefore, that the constant difference of the ele- 

 vation of the two sides of the valley is 300 feet. 



We shall not venture to decide whether it has been only acci- 

 dentally that this peculiar formation of valley has taken place 

 precisely at the place where the directions of the systems of 

 mountains of the north-east of Germany and the banks of the 

 Rhine, cross each other for the last time. On the other hand, 

 it is not the less singular to find the head of a gypseous mass in 

 the bottom of the valley, at the bridge named Emmerbrucke, 

 near the saline. We cannot, however, attribute to an acci- 

 dental association, the existence in the same valley of the largest 

 acidulous springs in Westphalia, and of those emanations of car- 

 bonic acid which are met with everywhere at a small dej^th, and 

 which have rendered the gaseous or sulphureous eaves of Pyr- 

 mont so celebrated. In these places, the pipes are still open, 

 which the subterraneous gases followed when they split and 

 raised up the crust of the mountainous country of the north of 

 Germany, Those substances which now issue quietly from the 

 earth, and which man has turned to his advantage, at a former 

 period existed in a heated and compressed state, and may have 

 elevated and overthrown masses of mountains. 



Those who are aware of the influence which the evolution of 

 carbonic acid gas, and the mineral springs which are connected 

 with them, have upon volcanic phenomena, will not find much 

 to disapprove of in our idea respecting the formation of the 

 Valley of Pyrmont. Who would not be agreeably surprised 

 at finding the other acidulous springs in the same country ex- 

 isting in the same circumstances ? The largest acidulous springs 

 in the country, next to those of Pyrmont, issue on the left bank 

 of the Weser, in the Valley of Driburg, which, in all its ex- 

 ternal relations, is but a miniature of the Valley of Pyrmont. 

 We have, at Fig. 3. Plate IV., a section where we see the mu- 

 schelkalk ridge, which extends from the edges of the plain of 

 Paderborn, from Driugcnbcrg to Horn, is split and open upon 

 its summit in the direction of south and north, at the same time 

 that the variegated sandstone appears in the bottom of the val- 



