95 
A year or two later Mr. Kingzett examined and reported upon 
a similar water derived from this neighbourhood (see “ Bourne¬ 
mouth,” by Dr. H. Dobell, p. 227). Mr. Kingzett describes the 
water as strongly chalybeate and possibly useful medicinally—its 
total salines were then 273.50 grains per gallon. 
These examinations, unfortunate!}’, are not so complete as 
continuous observation and analysis might make them, yet they 
will fairly account for the origin and peculiar nature of the waters. 
Iron is not in solution as Carbonate, that is to say— it is not 
dissolved from soft ores by the Carbonic Acid of the soil. The 
solvent radicals were mainly Hydrochloric and Sulphuric Acids, 
and the chief bases in union were Soda, Lime, and Magnesia. The 
springs rise from no great depth, and there is no rocky hinter¬ 
land that would explain their production at the coast line. Two 
elements must play important parts in the production of these 
ferruginous cliff springs:—I. Rainfall or soft water containing 
besides dust minute proportions of Ammonia, perhaps as Nitrate 
and Sulphate, and II. Sea Water, which contains Sodium, 
Magnesium, and Calcium, salts of Chlorine and Sulphuric Acid 
like the springs we have examined. Not only is the storm spray 
driven upon our cliffs, but the capillarity of our sands and gravels 
favour the reaction upon the ferruginous minerals in moist contact 
-—one of these is Pyrites or Ferrous Sulphide, a combination of 
Iron and Sulphur—an ultimate oxidation of which gives the soluble 
Ferrous Sulphate. Irregular deposits of pyrites occur along our 
cliffs as geological deposits, but there exist also recent formations 
of such compounds in the black earth at the rootlets of plants— 
an outcome of plant life as its excreta. There are known 
microbial forms and enzymes which form similar products. Thus 
much for the production of modern as well as ancient pyrites or 
compounds of iron and sulphur. The soluble Ferrous Sulphate 
will form a loose combination with Sodium Sulphate or Chloride 
or even take up a little Aluminium that may happen to come in 
its way and so form a crude Alum, and later on, oozing 
out near limestone, leave a portion of its dissolved 
iron in exchange for lime. The orange colouration tells its own 
tale of substitution below the pipes issuing from our sea walls 
which conveys the land drainage to the sea. 
These so-called chalybeate springs in our cliffs, intermittent 
and largely dependent upon storm and rainfall, were neither true 
nor reliable, and we only regret their loss because their composi¬ 
tion and quantity were variable items which might be established 
by successive analyses. But there is another and vaster field of 
interesting research opened by these facts, viz. : Our cliffs or shore 
lines are being constantly etched, sapped and sectionalized by the 
solubility of some of its rock constituents, chiefly iron. The 
changes this element undergoes or promotes are amongst the most 
puzzling of natural phenomena. Its granular or crystalline texture 
and resistance troubles the metallurgist and engineer—its polarity, 
G 
