154 



THE HOKSE AND ITS RIDER. 



[1853 



Caledonia "Watei-s, wliicli tave acquired some i-epute amongst us. 

 I believe the St. Leon water lias been examined by Mr. Hunt, but 

 I have not seen his analysis. 



It is by no means improbable, that in the course of time, as the 

 country becomes more thoroughly investigated, other springs, 

 equal if not superior to the Plaiitagenet and Caledonia Waters 

 may be discovered in this portion of the Province. If, however, 

 ■we cannot congratulate oui'selves on the possession of very strong 

 mineral springs, we at least are extremely fortunate in possessing 

 lake and river water of a greater degree of purity than almost 

 any other part of the world. The water of Ontario is of most 

 extraordinary purity, and it is very probable that the waters of the 

 Upper Lakes will be found to be still more free from extraneous 

 matters. It would be of considerable interest to compare, by 

 accurate analyses, the waters of Superior, Huron, Erie and 

 Ontario. Should any members of the Institute who may have the 

 oppoi-tunity of collecting such specimens be inclined to undertake 

 the task of forwai'diug them to Toronto, it must be remembered 



that a very considerable quantity (several gallons) would be 

 required, and it would have to be preserved in glass vessels 'with 

 the greatest care. 



The waters of some of the rivers of Canada seems to be ex- 

 ceedingly pure. The St. Lawrence water at Montreal has been 

 analysed by Dr. Hall ; and from some experiments which I have 

 recently made on the Thames water (London, C. W.) it appears 

 that the quantity of solid ingredients in one imperial e^Uon of 

 70,000 grains amounts to only 10.50, a purity ■which is equalled 

 by only a few other waters in the world. 



APPENDIX. 

 AiTALTsis I. — Ancaster Saline Spring, . . Specific GraTity . 102910 



II. — ^Mr. Young's Spring, Hamilton 

 III. — Charlotteville Spring .... 

 IV.— Plantagenet Water 



V. — Caledonia Gas Spring .... 

 VI. — " Saline Spring . . . 



VIL— " White Sulphur . . 



100640 

 100270 

 100637 

 100620 

 100582 

 100370 



m ONE PINT. 



The above analyses (excepting No. II.) ■n'cre made by Mr. Hunt, the accomplished Chemist of the Geological Survey, to whom -we are 

 indebted for by tar the larger portion of our ino-tvledge of the chemical composition of the products of Canada. 



The Horse and its Rider. 



BY J. BAILKY TURNER, ESQ., QUEBEC. 



It seems to be the generally received opinion that the Hu- 

 man race now spread over every part of the habitable world, 

 consisted of more than one primreval stock, clustered round the 

 vicinity of a common centre, from which they radiated, and that 

 that centre is to be sought for in that high region of Asia, which 

 forms, as it were, the exterior border of the Kingdom of Thibet, 

 or the ancient land of Zend, the district surrounding the Oxus 

 and Taxartes and in the Khangai, Oases, or fertile spots found in 

 the great desert of Gobi. In these Oases it is probable that 

 the eariier tribes existed, employing themselves in, and maintain- 

 ing themselves by, agiiculture and pastoral industry, until their 

 numbers increased to such an extent that they were compelled to 

 migrate in order to procure the means of subsistence, and in 

 doing so obeyed the Divine command, to increase and multiply, 

 replenish the earth, and sulxlue it. With hardly one opposing 

 circumstance, all the traditionary, historical knowledge of man- 

 kind, all our acquirements, all our domestic possessions, point to 



this region as that in which human developement took its first 

 distribution after the Deluge, wherever may have been the great 

 centre of the ante-diluvian population. Around this vast region 

 are stupendous mountain chains, bearing the names of God, of 

 Heaven, of Snow, or Purity, — and we have in the \arious East- 

 ern mythologies, traditions, that hei-e were the four rivers of 

 Paradise, and that on the peak of Nanbiindana the ark rested 

 after the flood ; while in Tartar legends, Nataghi, the Boatman 

 God, and his family, are placed on another mountain, far to the 

 north, in the Altaian chain ; — another legend makes the ark rest 

 on the peak of the Dove, a mountain on the western side of the 

 Indus, now known as the Takt-y-Suleiman ; and here I may 

 observe, that nothing in the early Jewish legends, commonly 

 known as the Books of Moses, is adveree to the supposition that 

 the original scat of the human race was further to tlio East, or 

 in a more central position in Asia, than is commonly sup))>osed; 

 in fact that it was near the castei'n and not the western Cauea- 

 .sus. E\'en the Mosaic assertion that the ark rested on Mount 

 Ararat after the flood, is nothing, because the word Ararat is 

 generic, meaning simply a " Mjiuataiu Peak," and is thcrefoM 



