144 SPRINGS, RIVERS, CANALS, LAKES, 



SECTION VII. 



Inflammable Springs, Wells, and Lakes. 

 1. Introductory Remark*. 



WE have already observed that the materials with which water 

 becomes combined in a long or devious subterranean course, must 

 be very numerous, and of very different qualities : for as it is the 

 most general solvent in nature, it is capable of dissolving or of hold, 

 ing in suspension, a part of most of the substances through which 

 it travels or which it accidentally encounters, whether earthy, olea- 

 ginous, or gasseous. 



It hence, as we have already seen, frequently becomes united 

 with large quantities of caloric, and produces tepid or hot springs; 

 sometimes with pure air or other gasses, and produces bubbling 

 springs, or those which to the eye have the appearance of boiling, 

 but to the touch or to the thermometer are found cold ; and some- 

 times with highly inflammable or combustible substances, and are 

 hence capable of firing or supporting flame. 



Of this last kind we have various instances both in wells or foun. 

 tains, and in lakes ; and though the instances are not, perhaps, very 

 numerous, (hey have been known from a very early era, and when 

 chemically examined, have been chiefly found to consist of hydro- 

 gen gass, or some bituminous preparation, as naphtha, asphalt, 

 'rock oil, or petroleum. 



One of the earliest of these inflammable fountains that occur to 

 us in an unquestionable character is that of Dodona, situated near 

 the temple of Jupiter, and which, as has been already hinted at by 

 Mr. Gough in an article we have just quoted from him *, seems 

 also to have been a periodical spring. One of the first and best 

 authenticated accounts we have of this burning fountain is to be 

 met with in Lucretius, to whose comprehensive research as a natural 

 philosopher, we have already had frequent occasions of expressing 

 our obligations. It occurs in lib. vi. 879, of his Nature of Things, 

 as follows : 



* See the present Chapter, Sect. iv. art. . Giggleswick Well. 



