302 MINERAL SPRINGS. 



odor of sulphuretted hydrogen. Another was shown him at a little distance from the rest, 

 whose temperature was only 59. 8; and this also, he was assured, very sensibly emitted the 

 same odor in the morning. 



CHILLAN. 



The sulphur baths of Chilian are at the bottom of a ravine in the Andes, E.StE. from the 

 city after which they are named ; not far from the head-waters of the river Nuble, and 

 nearly 500 miles from Santiago. Here, at an elevation of more than 6,000 feet, in the midst 

 of capriciously broken hills and smoking solfataras of the desert cordillera, a citizen of Chilian 

 possessed of more enterprise than many of his countrymen on whose estates nature has mis- 

 takenly located fountains of alleviation has erected a few rude houses, and provided accom- 

 modations for infirm guests, not far below the snow-line. Such has become the fame of these 

 waters latterly, that visitors have come even from the remote capital a journey of no trifling 

 moment when we remember that at such times ox-carts are the usual vehicles of locomotion. 



The dwellings are immediately at the baths. Five or six of the latter are supplied from 

 springs whose temperatures range from 118. 4 to 140. When it rises from the earth the 

 water is perfectly diaphanous, and emits a strong odor of sulphuretted hydrogen ; both of which 

 properties are lost after a short exposure to the air, and a slight deposit of white sulphur succeeds. 

 A residuum of the same character is observed on the bather, and the air of the whole ravine is 

 so impregnated with the detestable gas, that its odor is a nuisance to all new comers. In the 

 apertures through which the waters flow, the vapor accumulates a sublimated sulphur either 

 in small concretions or delicate and fragile spiculfe. In a thousand grains of the water there 

 exists nearly half a grain of mineral matter, consisting of carbonate of lime, sulphate of soda, 

 carbonate of soda, and sulphate of sodium. Free carbonic acid and azote are also perceptibly 

 present. 



Three hundred feet lower in the same quebrada there are other sulphur springs in the midst 

 of veritable fumarolas that is, apertures 'from whence sulphurous acid, vapor of water, and 

 sublimated sulphur, are thrown out. In one of these, nearly eighteen inches in diameter, 

 there arises a stream of water at a temperature above 147, and from its midst gas is evolved 

 in such quantities that a large vessel may be filled with it in a few minutes. Prof. 

 Domeyko found it colorless, clouding with a solution of barytes and an extinguisher of com- 

 bustion in short, a mixture of carbonic acid and azote. At a very few steps farther there is 

 another spring, from which water at the temperature of 190 gushes in large bubbles. It is 

 turbid, and emits a strong odor of sulphuretted hydrogen. The surrounding rock is hot 

 enough to burn cloth left in contact with it some minutes. At the same spot there is heard 

 the ebullition of another spring like that of a huge subterranean caldron ; and the fumes of 

 sulphuric acid thrown out deposit on the earth and rocks of the vicinity a yellow or reddish 

 grey coating, similar to that produced on the surface of those near the solfatara of Cerro Azul. 

 The whole locality is replete with interest. 



There are other hot springs at the very foot of the ravine, below and above. One may not 

 only find holes filled with water, apparently in eternal ebullition, but a part of the rocks are 

 so hot that a little stream which pours over them is instantly converted into vapor, with a 

 hissing noise, and from under foot comes a roar as of gigantic steam-boilers.* At one place 

 there is a mountain of sulphur, and a little farther away one of snow, from whose eastern slope, 

 and almost from beneath the snow itself, a stream of heated sulphur-water flows. Within a 

 mile or two the latter tumbles into another that springs from the centre of the valley. This 

 last is cold and crystalline, and the two flow off to mingle their discordant stream with the 

 Nuble. Thus, a locality whose proximity to the snow-line would render it almost if not quite 

 uninhabitable by invalids with Chilean constitutions, is kept constantly at a charming tempera- 



* Domeyko : Anales de la Universidad. 



