IX.] CHEMISTRY OF NATURAL WATERS. 159 



This water is remarkable for the amount of chloride of 

 calcium which it contains, equal to more than one half of the 

 solid contents, a much larger proportion than in any of the 

 bitter saline waters hitherto examined in Canada, or elsewhere. 

 In most waters of this class, the proportion of chloride of 

 potassium (as shown in 52) is small, rarely attaining to one 

 hundredth of the alkaline chlorides; but in the Manitouliii 

 water it amounts to not less than 16.6 per cent of these or 

 more than 3.7 per cent of the entire solid matters, a propor- 

 tion as great as in modern sea-water. This peculiarity, not 

 less than the absence of sulphates, would lead us to suspect 

 that this water may be derived, by dilution, from an ancient 

 bittern, from which, owing to the excess of lime in the primi- 

 tive seas, the sulphates have been eliminated in the form of 

 gypsum, in the process of evaporation. Further analyses of 

 waters from this region are needed to complete their history. 



The second water to be noticed is from a well sunk at 

 Both well, Ontario, for petroleum, in 1865. At a depth of 

 475 feet from the surface, and probably at or near the base of 

 the Corniferous limestone, a copious spring was met with, which 

 rose to the surface, and on the 16th of September, 1865, was 

 yielding at the rate of about 700 gallons per hour of bitter, very 

 sulphurous water, with a little petroleum. The temperature 

 of this water was 54 F., or about 7 above the mean tempera- 

 ture of the region, which is traversed by the isothermal line of 

 47 F. The water was placed in carefully filled and well-corked 

 bottles, which were laid on their sides, and thus transported to 

 my laboratory at Montreal. Its specific gravity was 1020.9, 

 and that of another portion collected five days later, on the 

 21st September, was 1021.1. The water, which at the well 

 was transparent and colorless, was found on opening the 

 bottles to have become slightly yellowish. By further expos- 

 ure to the air it turned greenish-yellow from the formation of a 

 persulphide, and soon became coated with a film of sulphur, 

 the liquid after a while again growing colorless. The color 

 was at once destroyed by a little hydrochloric acid, the water 

 becoming opalescent from the separation of sulphur. The 



