DESCRIPTION 



A MINERAL SPRING NEAR HAKODADI 



BT EEV. GEORGE JONES, CHAPLAIN U. S. N. 



U. S. Steamer Mississippi, 

 At Sea, June 5, 1854. 



Sir : I examined the mineral spring on the southwest side of the promontory of Hakodadi 

 according to your orders, and found no deposit from it, except a thin film of a whitish, slimy 

 substance, with a few filaments of the same, seemingly derived from the action of the sulphur- 

 ous gasses upon the alumina of the rock through which they are forced up. These gasses are 

 tolerahly abundant, and sometimes produce a whizzing sound in their efforts to escape. The 

 water issues forth in several places, through small crevices, most of them under high-water 

 mark ; but there is one just above the reach of ordinary tides, where the discharge is largest 

 and the odor and taste are strongest, resembling those of the celebrated spring at the boat- 

 landing near Castle d'TJovo at Naples, with about half the strength of the latter. 



The isolated hill (or mountain), on the side of which Hakodadi is built, consists entirely of 

 sienite, generally grey, sometimes reddish, in which the crystals of tourmaline are very dis- 

 tinct. At the spot where the mineral spring is, this rock seems to have been disrupted by 

 some subterranean force, so as to make a crevice about 20 feet wide ; and into this another 

 rocky substance has been forced up, similar to the former, except that the tourmaline has disap- 

 peared, and the feldspar is softer and in distinct masses, so as to form a porphyritic rock. Up 

 through this filled-up crevice the mineral water comes — probably from some region of volcanic 

 action not far off. 



On visiting the range of mountains stretching eastwardly and westwardly, commencing 

 about 8 miles north from Hakodadi, I found them, as far as I penetrated their recesses, to be 

 entirely of volcanic matter — either basalt, or, in other instances, volcanic tufa — the latter with 

 rounded basaltic masses embedded in its hardened paste; so that the isolated mountain of 

 Hakodadi is either in the midst, or on the edge, of a volcanic region ; and it is not at all sur- 

 prising to find there a sulphur spring. Close by this spring, but beyond the dyke or crevice 

 noticed above, we found another stream; the latter from the sienite rock, and of pure water of 

 the ordinary kind. 



13 s 



