100 BURNING SPRINGS* 



six; in Richmond, south-west of the one T visited ; 

 both these districts border on Bristol. There is 

 also a burning spring at Chippeway, in Upper 

 Canada, and another in Westmoreland, ten or 

 twelve miles west ofUtica, near the Seneca turn- 

 pike road. They probably exist in many places 

 in this region, andjthey appear to range from east 

 to west, diverging a little to the south-west. 



The gas which composes these burning springs, 

 is carburetted hydrogen gas, or carbon dis- 

 solved in hydrogen. It is the fire-damp of coal 

 mines, and whenever the atmosphere of a mine 

 becomes charged with more than one-thirteenth 

 of its volume of this gas, the whole becomes 

 explosive. The priests who direct the worship of 

 the followers of Zoroaster in Persia, impose this 

 gas, when in flame, upon their sect as the immor- 

 tal fire, after having conducted it by secret con- 

 duits into their temples. 



I have been informed by a gentleman from the 

 state of Ohio, that at Rocky Hill, in that country, 

 about a mile and a. half from Lake Erie, an 

 attempt was made to bore the earth for salt. Af- 

 ter proceeding to nearly the depth of 200 feet, 

 the auger fell, and salt water rose through the 

 aperture, and played for several hours. After the 

 water was spent, volumes of inflammable air issued 

 forth for a long time, and formed a cloud, which, 



