236 Gases, Acids, Salts, tj-c. 



There is another very interesting water of this kind at 

 Spring Mills, on the east shore of Cayuga lake. It issues 

 from the earth in quantities sufficient for turning a grist mill. 

 The water is perfectly limpid, and notwithstanding the large 

 quantity of water which continually issues from it, the taste 

 and odour of sulphuretted hydrogen are very strong. When 

 I visited this sprmg in August, 1823, the pond made by the 

 spring supported an extensive growth of the hippuris vulga- 

 ris, and no other plants. The owner of the pond, however, 

 supposed he had seen a few diflerent plants in former years. 



Numerous small springs, highly charged with sulphuretted 

 hydrogen, issue from the soft pyritiferous variety of argillite 

 in the vicinity of the river Hudson, between Fort Edward 

 and the Highlands. The water of these springs is always 

 perfectly limpid. 



The limpid appearance of all sulphuretted water may be 

 explained, by supposing all coloring matters, whether ani- 

 mal, vegetable, or mineral, which give any opacity to water, 

 to depend on the oxides of metals. As sulphuretted hydro- 

 gen will precipitate these oxides, nothing is left to discolor 

 the water. 



3. Carburetted Hydrogen Gas. 



This gas issues through crag, or a gravelly soil, at the 

 north side of a hill on the farm of Stephen Williams, one 

 mile west of Vernon village. It is about six miles south of 

 the Erie canal, and forty rods north of the stage road ; and 

 seventeen miles west of Utica. About a gallon a minute is- 

 sues through a spring of water ; which I calculated, from 

 several trials by the watch, on the 30th of July, 1 823. I ob- 

 served it issuing from several small masses of water along 

 the foot of the same hill ; which naturally induced a belief, 

 that it issues from the earth in all parts of several acres of 

 ground adjoining the chief spring. The underlying rocks 

 are fields or patches of ferriferous rock, resting on the salife- 

 rous rock. It burns with a flame of a reddish- white color, 

 and blue at the base. 



Six and a half miles east of Lockport, carburetted hydro- 

 gen gas issues through the water of a basin in the south side 

 of the Erie canal. This was never observed until the water 

 was let into the canal. Even then no notice was taken of 

 it, excepting that one of the engineers observed that a gas, 

 like that near Niagara Falls, (which is sulphuretted hydro- 



