130 
ECONOMICAL MINERALOGY. 
which issued through the basin at one place exceeded a gallon a minute. This place was 
named Gasport * 
Chautauque County. By far the most interesting exhibitions of the evolution of carbu- 
retted hydrogen which occur in this State, are to be observed in this county. The village of 
Fredonia, indeed, has attracted much attention in consequence of the gas springs found in its 
immediate vicinity, although they are by no means confined to this particular locality. 
The village of Fredonia is situated on the Canadawa creek, about three miles south of Lake 
Erie; and the gas springs seem to have their origin in the strata of slate which form the bed 
of the stream, and which are every where met with in this vicinity, a short distance from the 
surface of the earth. This slate has a bluish colour, and some of the layers are exceedingly 
fragile, requiring only a few years exposure to be completely converted into a clayey soil. 
The lower strata, however, resist atmospheric agencies, and are sometimes used as a building 
material. When recently broken, this slate always emits a strong bituminous odour, and it 
frequently contains thin seams of a substance resembling bituminous coal. Most commonly, 
however, this bituminous matter occurs in patches, having more the appearance of detached 
vegetable impressions, than of a regular stratum. 
Through fissures in this rock in the creek near the village, are every where to be seen 
bubbles of gas rising through the water. The evolution, however, is most abundant at the 
bridge, and about three quarters of a mile below. The gas, when collected in a proper vessel 
and fired, burns with a white flame tinged with yellow above, and blue near the orifice of the 
burner. Its illuminating power is not inferior to that of ordinary coal gas. When mixed with 
atmospheric air and ignited, it explodes violently. It contains no admixture of sulphuretted 
hydrogen. 0 
The illuminating power of this gas and its abundant supply, suggested the idea of its em¬ 
ployment in lighting the village. A copious discharge of the gas was observed issuing from 
a fissure in the rock which forms the bed of the creek, which it was thought could be diverted 
to a boring on the bank. A shaft was accordingly sunk through the slate about twenty-two 
feet in depth, which occasionally passed through layers of the bituminous substance already 
described, and the result was that the gas left the creek and issued through the shaft. By 
means of a tube, the gas was now conducted to a gasometer, and from thence to different 
parts of the village. The gasometer had a capacity of about two hundred and twenty cubic 
feet, and was usually filled in about fifteen hours, affording a sufficient supply of gas for 
seventy or eighty lights. 
Bubbles of the same gas are here and there seen rising through the water in this creek for 
nearly three quarters of a mile below the village ; but the largest quantity is evolved at the 
latter point. It was not possible for me with any apparatus which I could command, to deter¬ 
mine the. amount of gas given out at this place in a given time; but bubbles rise with great 
rapidity from an area of more than twenty feet square, and I should probably be warranted in 
asserting that it is five or six times greater than that obtained at the village. 
American Journal of Science. XV. 237. 
