273 Boracic Acid Lagoons of Tuscany. 



clear weather, whether in winter or summer, the vapors are less 

 dense, but the depositions of boracic acid in the lagoons are 

 infaUible barometers to the neighborhood, even at a great dis- 

 tance, serving to regulate the proceedings of the peasantry in 

 their agricultural pursuits. 



It had been long supposed that the boracic acid was not to be 

 found in the vapors of the lagoons ; and when it is seen how 

 small the proportion of acid must originally be, it will not be 

 wondered at that its presence should have escaped attention. In 

 the lowest of the lagoons, after five, six, and in some cases a 

 greater number of impregnations, the quantity of boracic acid 

 given out does not exceed one half per cent. ; thus if the pro- 

 duce be estimated at 750U pounds per day, the quantity of sat- 

 urated water daily discharged is a million and a half of Tuscan 

 pounds, or five hundred tons English. ' 



The lagoons are ordinarily excavated by the mountaineers of 

 Lombardy, who emigrate into Tuscany during the winter season, 

 when iheir native Apennines are covered with snow. They 

 gain about one Tuscan bra per day. But the works are con- 

 ducted, when in operation, by natives, all of whom are mar- 

 ried, and who occupy houses attached to the evaporating pans. 

 They wear a common uniform^ and their health is generally 

 ood. 



A great improvement in the cultivation, and a great increase 

 in the value of tlie neighboring soil, has naturally followed the 

 introduction of the manufacture of the boracic acid. A rise of 

 wages has accompanied the new demand for labor ; much land 

 has been brought into cultivation by new directions given to the 

 streams of smaller rivers. Before the boracic lakes were turned 

 to profitable account, their fetid smell, their frightful appearance, 

 agitating the earth around them by the ceaseless explosions of 

 boiling water, and not less the terrors with which superstition 

 invested them,* made the lagoons themselves to be regarded as 



* So unwilling were the pcasaiils to settle in these districts, that very extraordi- 

 nary encouragements were held out to them. In the commune of Monte Cerboli, 

 any inhabitant of the town may sow and reap whatever he pleases without re- 

 quiring the consent of the owner of the soil ; so it frequently happens that small 

 tracts are cultivated which are particularly favored by water or otlier advantages, 

 and all the surrounding land left untouched. As the inhabitants have the prima- 

 ry right, the landlord generally abandons his property to the chance cultivation of 



