412 On Mud Volcanoes and Salt Lalces in the Crimea. 



with, various gases, and issues forth as thin fluid mud. Through 

 the same or similar faults, rises to the surface waters loaded 

 with sulphuretted hydrogen, such as those which give its name 

 to the Putrid Sea; and through similar faults, generally parallel, 

 there rises to the surface that mineral oil or petroleum which 

 is used on a large scale in Baku and its neighbourhood, but 

 which is perfectly available in a number of localities whence 

 no one as yet has taken the trouble to extract it in any syste- 

 matic way. Certainly the chemist is needed in these interest- 

 ing spots, to enable the owners of the soil to avail themselves of 

 the large stores of mineral wealth nature has provided ; but the 

 geologist has already made known the existence of the treasure. 



The first clear and well-marked case of a mud volcano in 

 action that came under mv observation in these districts, was 

 a few miles from Kertch, about a, mile to the north of the old 

 fortress and Turkish town of Enikale or Yenikale, a place well- 

 known during the Crimean war, but little heard of before or 

 since. Small wells or pits have here been dug in a white 

 chalky rock, dipping almost vertically towards the north-east, 

 and a spring of sulphurous water with bubbles of gas slowly 

 but incessantly rises to the surface — these are the first things 

 seen. These springs and wells are in a line running up from a 

 salt marsh by the sea-side, in a direction N. 70° W. A con- 

 tinual gurgling noise was heard at the surface at the time of 

 my visit, and the temperature of the water was 71° F., that of 

 the air being some degrees lower. About one mile to the north- 

 east of this line of springs is a line of mud volcanoes almost 

 exactly parallel to it. Here again are both sulphur and naphtha 

 springs, but not abundant ; but close by there is a perfectly 

 conical hill, not now erupting, and a number of lower hills, 

 much smaller, but still of considerable size, from which mud 

 was slowly issuing at the time of my visit. 



There is something exceedingly curious in these little 

 cones. In one of the most recent and regular, though by no 

 means the largest, I measured a stream of thin, black, and 

 perfectly fine and soft mud, nowhere more than a few inches in 

 width, running slowly for a distance of about sixty yards, and 

 falling nearly twenty feet in this distance, or about one in nine. 

 The mud issued steadily, and at intervals of about four seconds 

 a large bubble of gas sedately made its way to the surface and 

 burst. This gas had neither taste nor smell. It was probably 

 nitrogen, a gas which Humboldt had previously detected in the 

 Crimean volcanoes. The temperature of the mud was 56°, much 

 below that of the air at the time. This temperature agrees 

 with that recorded as characteristic of most of the mud volca- 

 noes of the district. A spring of water rising close by 

 showed a temperature of Qti , and this water was sulphurous, 



