Very little is known of the chemical nature of the water; an analysis is said to have been made, which indicated a little carbonate of lime. An abundance of beautiful green moss grows at the edges of the springs, and the paths of their waters are marked by a brighter vegetation than occurs elsewhere. The substance of the rocks here, are, limestone, slate, and quartz.—Schoolcroft, Lead Mines of Missouri, p. 258.
We shall conclude this chapter with an account of various other Burning Springs.—There are many burning springs in different parts of the world, particularly one in France, in the department of Isere, near Grenoble; another near Hermanstadt, in Transylvania; a third at Chermay, a village near Switzerland; a fourth in the canton of Friburg; and a fifth not far from the city of Cracow, in Poland. There also is, or was, a famous spring of this kind at Wigan, in Lancashire, which, upon the approach of a lighted candle, would take fire and burn like spirit of wine for a whole day. But the most remarkable one in England, or at least that of which we have the minutest description, was discovered in 1711, at Brosely, in Shropshire. The following account of this remarkable spring was given by the Rev. Mr. Mason Woodwardin, Professor at Cambridge, dated Feb. 18th. 1746:—“The well, for four or five feet deep, is six or seven feet wide; within that, is another less hole of like depth, dug in the clay, in the bottom whereof is placed a cylindric earthen vessel, of about four or five inches diameter at the mouth, having the bottom taken off, and the sides well fixed in the clay, which is rammed close about it. Within the pot is a brown water, thick and puddly, continually forced up with a violent motion beyond that of boiling water, and a rumbling hollow noise, rising or falling by fits, five or six inches; but there was no appearance of any vapour rising, which perhaps might have been visible, had not the sun shone so bright. Upon putting a candle down at the end of a stick, at about a quarter of a yard distance, it took fire, darting and flashing after a very violent manner for about half a yard high, much in the manner of spirits in a lamp, but with great agitation. It was said, that a teakettle had been made to boil in nine minutes, and that it had been left burning for forty-eight hours without any sensible diminution. It was extinguished by putting a wet mop upon it; which must be kept there for a little time, otherwise it would not go out. Upon the removal of the mop, there arises a sulphureous smoke, lasting about a minute, and yet the water is very cold to the touch.” In 1755, this well totally disappeared, by the sinking of a coal-pit in its neighbourhood. The cause of the inflammable property of such waters is with great probability supposed to be their mixture with petroleum, which is one of the most inflammable substances in nature, and has the property of burning on the surface of water.
CHAP. XLVIII.
CURIOSITIES RESPECTING EARTHQUAKES.
| Earthquakes, Nature’s agonizing pangs, Oft shake the astonish’d isles; the Solfaterre Or sends forth thick, blue, suffocating steams, Or shoots to temporary flames. A din, Wild, thro’ the mountain’s quivering rocky caves, Like the dread crash of tumbling planets, roars. When tremble thus the pillars of the globe, Like the tall cocoa by the fierce north blown, Can the poor brittle tenements of man Withstand the dread convulsion? Their dear homes, Which shaking, tottering, crashing, bursting, fall, The boldest fly; and, on the open plain Appall’d in agony, the moment wait, When, with disrupture vast, the waving earth Shall whelm them in her sea-disgorging womb. Nor less affrighted are the bestial kind: The bold steed quivers in each panting vein, And staggers, bath’d in deluges of sweat: The lowing herds forsake their grassy food, And send forth frighted, woful, hollow sounds: The dog, thy trusty centinel of night, Deserts the post assign’d, and piteous howls. Wide ocean feels———— The mountain waves, passing their custom’d bounds, Make direful loud incursions on the land, All overwhelming: sudden they retreat, With their whole troubled waters; but anon Sudden return, with louder, mightier force; The black rocks whiten, the vext shores resound; And yet, more rapid, distant they retire. Vast corruscations lighten all the sky With volum’d flames, while thunder’s awful voice, From forth his shrine by night and horror girt, Astounds the guilty, and appals the good. Grainger. |
Earthquakes and their Causes.—From A. de Humboldt’s Personal Narrative of Travels, translated by Helen Maria Williams.
“It is a very old and commonly received opinion at Cumana, Acapulca, and Lima, that a perceptible connection exists between earthquakes, and the state of the atmosphere that precedes these phenomena. On the coast of New Andalusia, the inhabitants are alarmed, when, in excessively hot weather, and after long droughts, the breeze suddenly ceases to blow, and the sky, clear and without clouds at the zenith, exhibits near the horizon, at six or eight degrees elevation, the appearance of a reddish vapour. These prognostics are however very uncertain; and when the whole of the meteorological variations, at the times when the globe has been the most agitated, are called to mind, it is found, that violent shocks take place equally in dry and in wet weather, when the coolest winds blow, or during a dead and suffocating calm. From the great number of earthquakes, which I have witnessed to the north and south of the equator; on the continent, and in the bason of the seas; on the coasts, and at 2500 toises height; it appears to me, that the oscillations are generally very independent of the previous state of the atmosphere. This opinion is embraced by a number of enlightened persons, who inhabit the Spanish colonies; and whose experience extends, if not over a greater space of the globe, at least to a greater number of years than mine. On the contrary, in parts of Europe where earthquakes are rare compared to America, natural philosophers are inclined to admit an intimate connection between the undulations of the ground, and certain meteors, which usually take place at the same epocha. In Italy, for instance, the sirocco and earthquakes are suspected to have some connection; and at London, the frequency of falling stars, and those southern lights which have since been often observed by Mr. Dalton, were considered as the forerunners of those shocks which were felt from 1748 to 1756.
EFFECTS OF AN EARTHQUAKE.—[Page 499.]