102 
GEOLOGY OF THE FIRST DISTRICT. 
easy to account for the absence of sulphate of lime, a salt so generally found in mineral , 
springs, and'which would, by this supposed process, be abundantly formed. Audit leaves 
still unaccounted for the singular fact, that in the same rock formation different gases are 
given out at different depths, and appear to be, as far as their origin is concerned, entirely 
independent of each other. Thus at the Albany spring, sulphuretted hydrogen rises from 
about thirty feet below the surface, and when a tube is sunk below this, the water contains 
no admixture of this gas ; again at the depth of about four hundred feet, the carburetted hy¬ 
drogen appears, and lastly, the carbonated water. We must, therefore, refer the production 
of these gases to more general, and probably more effective agencies. 
“ It may be proper to state, as it may throw some light upon this interesting subject, that 
at the Albany spring a tube is sunk into the boring about a hundred feet, and to it is 
attached a pump for raising the water into a cistern. When the pump has been worked for 
some time, the sulphur water sinks below the surface of the ground, and again appears when 
the-pumping has ceased. After the mineral water is discharged from the cistern, and the 
pressure is thus relieved, the inflammable gas flows out. It burns with a reddish white flame, 
blue at the base. Neither this gas nor the water contain the least portion of sulphuretted hy¬ 
drogen. 
“ Composition of the Albany mineral water.* In one pint. Specific gravity at 60° F. 
1.00900. Temperature 51° to 52°. 
Chloride of sodium,... 63.00 grains. 
Carbonate of soda,... 5.00 “ 
Carbonate of lime,. 4.00 “ 
' Carbonate of magnesia,... 2.00 “ 
Carbonate of iron with a little silica,. 1.00 “ 
Carbonic acid, 28 cubic inches.”! 
75.00 
The temperature of this water is from 51° to 52° of Fahrenheit’s thermometer at all sea¬ 
sons of the year, and its specific gravity 1.01. “The taste of the water is purely saline, 
somewhat pungent, and by no means disagreeable; but those who are best acquainted with 
it, think it by no means so stimulating and pungent as the Congress spring”! at Saratoga. 
“ It has no chalybeate taste.”! “ As to the gas which ascends through the tube, and has been 
described as inflammable, it appears to be hydrogen or carburetted hydrogen, similar to the 
gas which is so frequently observed to accompany the saline springs in the State of New- 
York, but which passes through the water without giving it any sensible qualities. When 
* “ The portion of this water which I analyzed, was obtained from the boring, soon after its mineral character was first noticed. 
The amount of carbonate of iron obtained from it was' not, as I have since learned, all chemically combined. I have accordingly 
made the proper correction.” 
t Prof. L. C. Beck. New-York Geological Report for 1838 : Assembly document, No. 200, pp. 153, 154. 
X Silliman’s Journal, XIII. pp. 145, 146. (Dr. W. Meade.) 
