Bath Wells. 555 



and pleasant, and would always be wholesome were it 

 not that many are polluted, and the fish killed in them, 

 by the refuse of the crushed ores of lead and copper 

 mines. 



Before proceeding to other subjects, I must try to 

 give some idea of the quantity of some of the salts 

 which are carried in solution to the sea by the agency 

 of running water. 



The first case I shall take is at Bath, where there is 

 a striking example of what a mere spring can do. The 

 Bath Old Well yields 126 gallons of water per minute, 

 which is equal to 181,440 gallons per day. There are 

 a number of constituents in this water, such as carbonate 

 pf lime, nearly nine grains to the gallon ; sulphate of 

 lime, more than eighty grains ; sulphate of soda, more 

 than seventeen grains ; common salt, rather more than 

 twelve and a half grains ; chloride of magnesium, four- 

 teen and a half grains to the gallon, &c. &c. 

 altogether, with our minor constituents, there are 144 

 grains of salts in solution in every gallon of this water, 

 which is equal to 3,732 Ibs. per day, or 608 tons a year. 

 A cubic yard of limestone may be roughly estimated to 

 weigh two tons. If, therefore, these salts were pre- 

 cipitated, compressed, and solidified into the same bulk, 

 and having the same weight, as limestone, we should 

 find the annual discharge of the Bath wells capable of 

 forming a column 3 feet square in diameter, and about 

 912 feet high. Yet this large amount of solid mineral 

 matter is carried away every year in invisible solution 

 in water which, to the eye, appears perfectly limpid and 

 pure. There are many other salt springs in England, 

 such as those of Cheltenham, and numberless others 

 nominally fresh, each of which brings to the surface its 

 proportion of salts in solution. Indeed, it has been 



