PENNSYLVANIA MINERAL SPRINGS. 127 



the classes of sulphureous and chalybeate waters that this 

 formation supplies most abundantly. The origin of these 

 materials in the waters is obvious. Free sulphuric acid is 

 found in many springs coming from coal-seams, forming true 

 sour or acid waters. The association of mineral waters in 

 Pennsylvania with fractures and dislocations of the rock 

 strata, or axes and faults, shows the same law as observed by 

 geologists in New York and Yirginia. The recent report 

 of Sterry Hunt to Mr. William E. Logan, in the Geological 

 Survey of Canada for 185T, presents an emphatic confirma- 

 tion of the same law, all the mineral springs reported issuing 

 from the palaeozoic formations of the Lower Silurian in the 

 line of axes, fractures and dislocations, as at other places. 

 Whether the suggestions of the geologists, many of which 

 appear wise, are the real philosophy on the subject, may re- 

 quire some more observation of facts to demonstrate. The 

 suggestions have the highest plausibility to support them, 

 and are ardently advocated by Forbes, Daubeny, and some 

 American geologists. 



Although the mineral waters of Pennsylvania have not 

 received the attention they deserve, still there are a number 

 of springs which have acquired justly merited celebrity; 

 they belong to the classes already enumerated. Some of 

 them have been in use for many years, and have enjoyed a 

 wide and extended reputation ; whilst others, more recently 

 discovered, enjoy a more limited popularity, and have a more 

 restricted and local faith attached to their virtues. Among 

 those longest known and best established in their reputation 

 are the 



BEDFORD SPRINGS. 



They are among the first-noticed springs of the State, and 

 are situated near the town of Bedford, in the county of the 

 same name. Their waters flow into one of the tributaries of 

 the Juniata River. There are here several springs which 

 are asserted to possess different characters, and all flow from 



