130 ECONOMICAL MINERALOGY. 



which issued through the basin at one place exceeded a gallon a minute. This place was 

 named Gasport* 



Chautauque County. By far the most interesting exhibitions of the evolution of carbu- 

 retted hydrogen which occur in this State, are to be observed in this county. The village of 

 Fredonia, indeed, has attracted much attention in consequence of the gas springs found in its 

 immediate vicinity, although they are by no means confined to this particular locality. 



The village of Fredonia is situated on the Canadawa creek, about three miles south of Lake 

 Erie ; and the gas springs seem to have their origin in the strata of slate which form the bed 

 of the stream, and which are every where met with in this vicinity, a short distance from the 

 surface of the earth. This slate has a bluish colour, and some of the layers are exceedingly 

 fragile, requiring only a few years exposvure to be completely converted into a clayey soil. 

 The lower strata, however, resist atmospheric agencies, and are sometimes used as a building 

 material. When recently broken, this slate always emits a strong bituminous odour, and it 

 frequently contains thin seams of a substance resembling bituminous coal. Most commonly, 

 however, this bituminous matter occurs in patches, having more the appearance of detached 

 vegetable impressions, than of a regular stratum. 



Through fissures in this rock in the creek near the village, are every where to be seen 

 bubbles of gas rising through the water. The evolution, however, is most abundant at the 

 bridge, and about three quarters of a mile below. The gas, when collected in a proper vessel 

 and fired, burns with a white flame tinged with yellow above, and blue near the orifice of the 

 burner. Its illuminating power is not inferior to that of ordinary coal gas. When mixed with 

 atmospheric air and ignited, it explodes violently. It contains no admixture of sulphuretted 

 hydrogen. 



The illuminating power of this gas and its abundant supply, suggested the idea of its em- 

 ployment in lighting the village. A copious discharge of the gas was observed issuing from 

 a fissure in the rock which forms the bed of the creek, which it was thought could be diverted 

 to a boring on the bank. A shaft was accordingly sunk through the slate about twenty-two 

 feet in depth, which occasionally passed through layers of the bituminous substance already 

 described, and the result was that the gas left the creek and issued through the shaft. By 

 means of a tube, the gas was now conducted to a gasometer, and from thence to different 

 parts of the village. The gasometer had a capacity of about two hundred and twenty cubic 

 feet, and was usually filled in about fifteen hours, affording a sufficient supply of gas for 

 seventy or eighty lights. 



Bubbles of the same gas are here and there seen rising through the water in this creek for 

 nearly three quarters of a mile below the village ; but the largest quantity is evolved at the 

 latter point. It was not possible for me with any apparatus which I could command, to deter- 

 mine the amount of gas given out at this place in a given time ; but bubbles rise with great 

 rapidity from an area of more than twenty feet square, and I should probably be warranted in 

 asserting that it is five or six times greater than that obtained at the village. 



* American Journal of Science, XV. 237. 



