ALLUVIAL DIVISION. 91 
At Ballston-Spa is a chalybeate spring, which is much used. It is, supposed to issue from 
near the junction of the drift with the graptolitic slate of the Hudson river slate group. 
Prof. Briggs observed chalybeate springs issuing from the gravel banks near the shore be¬ 
tween West neck and Lloyd’s neck, in Suffolk county. Long island. 
The following springs were described to me, but not examined, and from the description, 
were judged to be chalybeate : 
One near the road from Troy to Schenectady, four or five miles from Troy, Albany county. 
Another between East kill and Cairo on the Catskill mountain, on land of Judge Austin, 
Greene county. The water is stated to act as an emetic a few minutes after it is swallowed, 
but to possess little taste. It flows from the rocks of the Catskill division. 
Another is said to occur near North-Blenheim post office, in Schoharie county. It probably 
issues from the rocks of the Portage or Chemung group, or possibly from the Hamilton 
group. 
Mineral springs are said to occur on the farms of Peter Hoosis and Mr. Waterburgh in 
Stuyvesant, and another near New-Concord, on the left of the road from Kinderhook to that 
place. These are in Columbia county. 
A chalybeate spring is said to flow from the base of Barker’s mountain, half a mile north¬ 
west of Kline corners in Amenia, Dutchess county. 
A mineral spring flows from the base of the high hill called the Roman Nose, in the valley 
of the Schoharie kill, near the road from Middleburgh to Byrnville. 
Hepatic or Sulphur Springs. 
The waters of these springs have an unpleasant odor like sulphuretted hydrogen, the wash¬ 
ings of a gunbarrel when foul, or addled eggs. Silver dipped in the water becomes tarnished, 
and often black; and this effect is produced even when silver is exposed over or near the 
water, if the odor be strong. The presence of these springs is frequently known even when 
at some distance from them, if the water be copious, or strongly impregnated, in consequence 
of the peculiar odor which is diffused in the air around them. They are almost uniformly asso¬ 
ciated with metallic sulphurets, and generally with iron pyrites (sulphuret or bisulphuret of iron). 
It is generally supposed that the sulphuretted waters are formed by the decomposition of 
water furnishing oxygen, both to the sulphur and the metal, while the hydrogen combines 
with another part of the sulphur, as hydrosulphuric acid, and is retained dissolved in the 
water, under the pressure Avhere it is formed. By its solvent power, it holds various other 
mineral substances in solution, which are entirely or mostly deposited after they flow from 
the earth, unless easily soluble in water alone. 
The sulphur spring in the south part of Greenbush, Rensselaer county, on the farm of 
Mrs. Genet, has been known for many years, and has been described by Prof. Amos Eaton, 
in his Report on the Agricultural and Geological Survey of that county, p. 29. It emerges 
from the clay beds of the Hudson valley tertiary, overlying the black slate of the Hudson- 
