178 
DESCRIPTIVE MINERALOGY. 
which has been charred by the action of sulphuric acid, and which, though no water flows 
from it, is always quite damp. This vegetable matter has an intensely sour taste. About two 
miles east of the preceding there is a spring consisting of dilute sulphuric acid, which issues 
from the earth in considerable quantity. I examined with care the liquid acid, and the brownish 
vegetable matter subjected to its action. The former was found to be nearly pure sulphuric 
acid mixed with water; and the latter yielded, upon being boiled in water, a similar solution. 
The acid could not have been derived from an acid sulphate, as the bases were found only in 
very minute quantity. (See page 150.) 
It is said that at the time when this county was first settled, a copious spring of an intensely 
sour water issued from the top of the mound; but that in digging about the spring for the 
purpose of making it deeper, the whole was lost, and since that time if has only appeared in 
the spring of the year. The rocks below are the gypseous marls, and nearly or quite the 
same as those which are found below the sour springs in the town of Bergen.* In the town 
just named, there are several springs which contain sulphuric acid. One of these, however, 
is much stronger than the rest. They rise from the grey marl and gypsum. It is worthy of 
remark that some of the wells in the immediate vicinity, and in the same formation, yield 
good water. 
ORDER II. LIQUID MINERALS, NOT ACID. 
This includes the two following, viz : 
1. Atmospheric Water. 2. SeaWater. 
ATMOSPHERIC WATER. 
Atmospheric Water. Shepard. — Pure Atmospheric Water. Jameson. — Reines Atmosphar-Wasser. Mohs. — 
Eau. Beudant. 
Description. Liquid at ordinary temperatures, transparent, tasteless and inodorous. Spe¬ 
cific gravity 1.000, all solid and liquid bodies being referred to it as the standard. It is about 
828 times heavier than atmospheric air. 
At the temperature of 32° Fahr. water becomes solid, and it then sometimes appears in a 
variety of crystalline forms, usually having a hexagonal nucleus. When heated to 212° 
Fahr. it assumes the form of vapour or steam, and if this vapour be made to pass through a 
tube stuffed with iron wire and heated to redness, it is decomposed, the oxygen combining 
with the iron, and the hydrogen passing off in the form of gas. 
* Hall. New-York Geological Reports, 1840. 
