154 ECONOMICAL MINERALOGY. 



Chitlenango springs is 49° F., while the mean temperature of the village of that name is not 

 far from 47 . 50° ; the Onondaga springs have a temperature of 50°, while the mean tempera- 

 ture of Syracuse is about 47.90° ; Longmuir's spring at Rochester has a temperature of 52°, 

 while the mean temperature of that city is not above 49.37° ; and there is about the same 

 difference between the temperature of the Avon springs, and that of the village at which they 

 are found. This remark will, I think, apply to most, if not all these springs ; and it is of 

 some importance, as it places them under the general head of Thermal Springs. 



After these general statements, we shall probably have the means of testing the correctness 

 of the theories which have been proposed to account for the formation of sulphureous springs. 



Springs of this character have, perhaps, been most generally supposed to have their origin 

 in the decomposition of iron pyrites. The following observations occur in the valuable work 

 on Mineral and Thermal Springs, by Dr. Gairdner : " Iron pyrites," says he, " although in- 

 capable of giving rise to such general effects as were once supposed to be derived from it as 

 a cause, may very well be the source of the sulphuric acid, sulphuretted hydrogen and sul- 

 phate of iron, of cold sulphureous and aluminous chalybeate waters. These generally emerge 

 from strata in which this mineral is very abundantly disseminated, such as the coal formations, 

 secondary and alluvial clays. The lias clay, for instance, in England, contains much iron 

 pyrites, and is the chief seat of the sulphureous waters of this country, and of those which 

 abound in large quantities of the earthy sulphates ; and the strongest aluminous chalybeates 

 generally percolate through beds of clay iron-stone, containing nodules of, or cemented to- 

 gether by, iron pyrites. Many of the compact fetid limestones, which are the matrix of sul- 

 phureous springs, disengage a strong odour of sulphuretted hydrogen when dissolved in an 

 acid, and there floats on the surface of the solution a black bituminous matter." 



In another part of the same work, the author observes : " Those (springs) which contain a 

 considerable quantity of sulphuretted hydrogen gas, are very generally in the neighbourhood 

 of beds of fossil combustible matter, more or less impregnated with bitumen and iron pyrites. 

 Thus all the cold sulphureous waters of England either flow directly from, or are not far re- 

 moved from, the great mass of the coal formation ; and those in the north of Germany are 

 similarly related to the brown coal deposits of the tertiary and newest secondary formations."* 



It need not be repeated, that the account here given of the geological relations of the sul- 

 phureous springs of England and Germany is by no means applicable to those of the State of 

 New-York. This, however, is not the only difficulty which attends the adoption of the proposed 

 theory. It is well known, that for the decomposition of iron pyrites, the combined agency 

 of air and moisture, continued for some time, is necessary. But the presence' of these agents 

 cannot be easily a'ccoimted for, without the introduction of other conditions, which appear to 

 me to be inconsistent with the proposed explanation. Again, the constancy in the character 

 of these springs, both as it respects their solid and gaseous constituents, which has been main- 

 tained in some instances for hundreds of years, and the comparatively small accumulations of 



* Essay on the Natural HUtory, Origin, Composition, and Medicinal Effects of Mineral and Thermal Springs. By Meredith 

 Gairdner, M. D. 



