Mineral Waters of Canada. 365 



May, 1849 ; from this report the subjoined analyses are taken. 

 Among the waters is the Tuscarora Sour Spring, to which I have 

 already alluded, in a paper read before the Meeting of the Ameri- 

 can Association for the Promotion of Science, at its session in 

 Philadelphia, in Sept., 1848, and since published in this Journal. 

 It is situated in the Indian Reserve, in the County of Wentworth, 

 about nine miles south of Brantford, and three miles south of the 

 bank of the Grand River. The limestone rock of the region be- 

 longs to that formation which is designated by the geologists of 

 New York, as the Onondaga Salt Group. The country for some 

 distance around is thickly wooded ; but in the immediate vicinity 

 of the spring is a small clearing, upon a rising ground, on one 

 side of which is the spring, in an enclosure some eight or ten rods 

 square. In the centre of this, is a hillock six or eight feet high, 

 made np of the gnarled roots of a pine now partially decayed. 

 The whole enclosure is covered with crumbling rotten wood, and 

 resembles a tan-heap ; upon digging down eighteen inches, the 

 same material was found, apparently derived from the crumbling 

 away of the trunk of the once huge pine, whose roots now oc- 

 cupy the centre of the enclosure. The whole soil, if it may be 

 thus designated, is saturated with acid water, and the mold at the 

 top of the hillock, as well as without the enclosure, is strongly 

 acid. Near the confines of this region, but in soil still quite sour 

 to the taste, several plants were observed growing. They were 

 the sheep's sorrel (Rumex acctosella), the wild strawberry (Fra- 

 garia virginiana), two species of Rubus, the red raspberry (R. 

 strigosas) and R. canadensis, besides several mosses, and a fern. 

 The more acid parts were devoid of all vegetation. 



The principal spring is at the east side of the stump, and has 

 a round basin about eight feet in diameter and four to five feet 

 deep ; the bottom is soft mud. At the time of my visit (Oct. 

 18th) it was filled to within a foot of the brim ; and as the guide 

 assured me, unusually full, much fuller indeed than it had been 

 five days previous, although no rain had fallen in the interval. 

 There is no visible outlet to the basin ; at the centre a constant 

 ebullition is going on from the evolution of small bubbles of gas, 

 which is found on examination to be carburetted hydrogen. The 

 water is slightly turbid and brownish-colored, apparently from the 

 surrounding decayed wood, which indeed forms the sides of the 

 °asin. It is strongly acid and styptic to the taste, and at the same 

 time decidedly sulphurous; a bright silver coin is readily black- 

 ened by the water, and the odor of sulphuretted hydrogen is 

 perceived for some distance round the place. 

 . Within a few feet of this, was another smaller basin, two feet 

 m diameter, and having about one foot of water in it; this was 

 evolving gas more copiously than the other, and was somewhat 

 m ore sulphurous to the taste, although not more acid. In other 



««wn> Series, Vol. VIII, No. 24.— Nov., 1849. 47 



