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[AsSEJVIBLy 
of these springs were dry at the time I visited the place, and the peb- 
bles in the course of their outlet were covered with a deposition of sul- 
phur. Some of the springs were flowing copiously, and one more than 
all the others, the quantity of water discharged being much greater than 
from any other spring of the kind I have ever seen, and the whole 
strongly impregnated with the gas. Calcareous deposits of considerable 
thickness are forming about the springs; these are covered with an in- 
crastation of sulphur, as also the stones, grass and moss about the spring 
and along the outlet. 
The spring at Canoga, from which nitrogen is emitted, has already 
been mentioned under Seneca county. 
At Townshend's mill, four miles north of Bath, noticed as a locality 
of marl, there are several copious springs. These springs are the source 
of the inlet of Crooked Lake, and in dry seasons afford more water 
than from all the other streams flowing into it. 
Saline effloresences are of common occurrence on the exposed surfaces 
and cliffs of the upper black shale, and of the group above. These ef- 
florescences are principally of sulphate of alumine and magnesia, but in 
many instances, muriate of soda or common salt occurs, and in such 
quantities as to produce brackish springs. These circumstances are, 
however, no evidence of a large quantity of the material, but only of 
its presence, which w^e might expect from the conditions under which 
these rocks were deposited. The largest proportion of the rock being 
shale, deposited from an ocean in the form of clay, which from its na- 
ture remains long suspended in water, would carry with it, during its 
slow deposition, some portion of the saline ingredients of that fluid. 
The saline matter, as the clay consolidated, became part of the rock, 
which now disintegrating by the action of water, the saline matter is 
dissolved, giving its character to springs, or appearing in efflorescences 
upon the exposed surfaces. 
The numerous deer licks which occur in this region, derive their sa- 
line ingredients from the same source. At Jefferson, head of Seneca 
lake, there is a spring of this character; it is about two hundred and fifty 
feet above the lake. The pebbles along the stream which flows from 
the spring, are often in dry weather covered with particles of salt. At 
some distance below the spring, is a deposit of ochery iron, which im- 
pregnates the soil for some distance from the stream; this deposit has 
nearly disappeared, as the water from the spring is but slightly im- 
pregnate with this mineral. Saline springs are said to have been found 
