188 [Assembly 



kill a dog in five minutes. A dog is kept by the custode of the grotto 

 to be experimented upon for the benefit of visitors; he is left in the 

 grotto about two minutes, when he becomes perfectly insensible, he 

 is then taken out and after fifteen minutes exposure to the atmosphere 

 recovers animation. There is also a valley in the east called the val- 

 ley of death. Birds flying over it are immediately killed, owing to the 

 quantity of carbonic acid gas constantly issuing from it. There are 

 springs again which contain a vast amount of salt, so much so indeed 

 that forty gallons of the water will yield one bushel. The salt springs 

 in Onondaga county employ thousands of laborers in the manufacture 

 of salt, and yield 4,000,000 of bushels in a year. It is obtained by 

 evaporating the water in three different ways : 1st. by the sun ; 2d. 

 by artificial heat, and 3d. by boiling. 



You have all heard of petrifying springs, which will convert any 

 substance thrown into them to stone. This is a vulgar notion, and al- 

 together erroneous. There are no such springs; the petrified wood and 

 other matters found turned into stone, have become so at a date en- 

 tirely beyond the calculation of man. 



The modern springs said to possess this petrifying quality do not 

 convert wood to stone, but simply encrust it with carbonate of lime, 

 analogous to the fur on the bottoms of your tea kettles ; it will pre- 

 sent the appearance of a petrifaction. Remove this deceptive covering 

 and you wuU find the wood unchanged. 



Soft spring water, as it is called, is rain water which has passed 

 through the earth without coming in contact with any soluble sub- 

 stance capable of injuring its purity; even then it will not be as pure 

 as it would if caught before it comes in contact with the earth's surface. 



River water chiefly derives its source from mist and rain ; the mist 

 consists of immense masses of vapor, which we call clouds ; when 

 they come in contact wnth hills and mountains, they are condensed 

 and form rills; these unite themselves to streams, and the streams col- 

 lect and form lakes in the valleys between mountains; when full, their 

 outlets, aided by springs, rains, and melted snow, compose our im- 

 mense rivers. Ice and snow water are nearly pure^ for the reason that 

 any saline impurity they may have possessed before freezing, is by that 

 process separated. Take salt water and freeze it and the ice will be 

 almost fresh ; by the process of freezing, water becomes as lifeless as 



