on and near the Erie Canal, 235 



perature of the water may be suitable for the operation. If 

 niiiic acid is produced in this manner, the following may be 

 taken for the result, with some allowance for fractions. 



Nitric acid consists of 35.1 of nitrogen to 100 of oxygen. 

 Atmospheric air consists of 376.2 of nitrogen to 100 of oxy- 

 gen. Therefore every 100 of oxygen consumed in the pro- 

 duction of nitric acid from atmospheric air, would produce 

 341.8 of unmixed nitrogen gas. Consequently, about ten- 

 elevenths of the nitrogen gas of the air thus decomposed 

 would issue unmixed from the earth. 



2. Sulphuretted Hydrogen Gas. 



This gas is too common to require many remarks. In this 

 district it is confined to soft aluminous rocks. It is produ- 

 ced in large quantities in the softest varieties of argillite and 

 grey wacke. These rocks contain very soft fine-grained iron 

 pyrites. That this gas is produced by the decomposition of 

 the pyrites and water, has been so often shown, that I shall 

 confine my observations to a few particular localities. 



It issues from a spring on the Otsquago creek, ten miles 

 south of Fort Plain, on the Erie canal, forty-two miles west 

 of Schenectady. It burns along the surface of the water 

 with a bright red flame, by daylight. It issues from the wa- 

 ter continually at the rate of a little more than a gallon a 

 minute. The same gas issues, in about the same quantity, 

 from a spring on the Canada side of Niagara river, about a 

 mile south of the falls. I examined both of these burning 

 springs, as they are generally called, with very particular 

 care, in the summer of J 823. 



As water absorbs this gas with avidity, many springs, riv- 

 ulets, and small lakes, are highly charged with it ; but from 

 which more escapes in the state of gas. The most interest- 

 ing water of this kind, which has fallen under my notice, is 

 Lake Sodom, in a place nicknamed Satan's Kingdom. It 

 is about twenty rods south of the Erie canal, two miles east 

 of Manlius Center. The bottom is grass-green ferriferous 

 slate ; the sides white shell-marle, and the brim is black ve- 

 getable mould. The water is perfectly limpid. The whole 

 appears to the eye to be a rich porcelain bowl, filled with 

 limpid nectar ; but to the taste it is the true Harrowgate wa- 

 ter, and readily convinces the visitor of the fitness of the 

 name. 



