WATERS from ICELAND. 109 



To remove this fcruple, I took gr. 10,000 of diftilled water, 

 and added gr. 112 of the diluted acid. This mixture was then 

 boiled down, in the fame manner as the Iceland water \ that is 

 to fay, in a glafs which had an oval or nearly globular body, 

 about 5 inches deep, with a neck as long, and half an inch 

 wide. This glafs was placed in a ihallow fand-heat, the bottom 

 of which was a flat iron plate. The boiling was continued 

 until three fourths of the water were evaporated, and then, re- 

 moving it from the fire, I added gr. 40 of the dilute folution 

 of fait of tartar. This neutralized it exactly, and fhewed that 

 no part of the acid had been diffipated in boiling ; and it con- 

 tinued to fhew the figns of fufficiently exact faturation, after I 

 had evaporated it further to the weight of one ounce, in which 

 flate, any fuperfluous alkali, by being lefs diluted, would have 

 been more eafily difcernible. 



Experiments to determine the nature and quantity of the earthy 

 matter. 



Having thus determined the quantity of unfaturated alkali 

 in thefe Iceland waters, my attention was next turned to the 

 earthy matter. A fmall part of this earthy matter came into 

 view in the boiled and neutralized portions of thefe waters with 

 which I had made the above defcribed experiments. The neu- 

 tralized liquors were a little muddy, and depolited flowly a 

 fmall quantity of fediment, which collected itfelf clofely to the 

 bottom of the glafs, and adhered to it flightly. This fediment, 

 in the Rykum water, was deeply tinged with the colouring mat- 

 ter of the litmus ; in the Geyzer water, it had a brown tinge, 

 and there was a little more of it than in the other. I collected 

 thefe fediments, by firft decanting the greater part of the li- 

 quor from them, and afterwards filtrating the reft in a fmall 

 nitre, in which the fediment was warned, by pamng diftilled 



water 



