ACIDULOUS SPRINGS. 137 



Chloride of sodium, 53. 12 grains. 



Carbonate of soda, 2.11 



Carbonate of magnesia, 0.72 



Carbonate of lime, with a little oxide of iron, . . 3.65 



Sulphate of soda, 0.22 



Silica,* 1 . 00 



60.82 grains. 

 Carbonic acid gas, 30.50 cubic inches. 



Low's Well has a composition similar to the preceding, but the amount of saline matter is 

 less. Its specific gravity is 1 . 02548 ; temperature, 50° F. Park Spring, situated in the 

 rear of the Village Hotel, has also nearly the same constituents, but the oxide of iron is in 

 much larger proportion than in any of the waters in this vicinity. 



From several of the springs at Ballston, as well as at Saratoga, there is a discharge of gas 

 in larger or smaller bubbles, which does not seem to be associated with the water. At the 

 Park spring, minute bubbles of gas are continually rising through the.water, but at an interval 

 of about a minute, the whole well is agitated by the evolution of a comparatively large bulk 

 of the gas. This gas, which is in all cases nearly pure carbonic acid, also rises in great 

 abundance through the water of a well near Low's spring, and in various places in the valley 

 of the stream. Some years since, there was a very remarkable and indeed almost volcanic 

 discharge of it near the old factory, which threw up the water of the creek several feet into 

 the air ; but the gas soon diminished greatly in quantity, and can now be observed rising only 

 in small bubbles through the bed of the stream. 



From these facts, it is evident that here, as at Saratoga, there are certain agencies in ope- 

 ration which cause an abundant evolution of carbonic acid, a part of which has been originally 

 held in solution by the water, but another and perhaps much the largest part is an independent 

 stream of gas discharged in the form of a solfatara or gaseous spring. That this gas originates 

 at great depths, and rises freely through the crevices in the rock, is rendered probable from its 

 alternately breaking out and disappearing at points somewhat distant from each other. And 

 perhaps the opinion of Berthier may here be applied, viz. that the water of the spring is forced 

 up by the elasticity of the confined gas. 



The phenomena presented at Ballston, so far at least as the evolution of the gas is concerned, 

 are quite analogous to those noticed by Brandes and Kruger, in their account of the mineral 

 waters of Pyrmont, that the extrication of this gas is by no means limited to the spot from 

 whence the chalybeate springs of that watering place arise, but is observed for some distance 

 round, wherever fissures, natural or artificial, exist. Thus a cavity having been made by 

 some workmen, for quarrying stone, it was found that the air became charged with from thirty- 



• This water probably. contains both iodine and bromine in some form of combination, but the quantity upon which I operated 

 was too small to admit of separatijig them, and determining their relative proportions. 



Part I. 18 



