Part 43 (1/2)
”I have taken the liberty to give a name to this spring, and to call it 'The Alternating Geyser.'
”These springs have been formerly observed, though the singularity of the alternations does not seem to have been attended to as any thing remarkable. Olafson and Paulson mention, that the jets appear and disappear successively, in the second, third, and fourth openings. We observed no cessations in any of the springs, except in the two under consideration.
”To form a theory of this regular alternation is no easy matter; and it seems to require a kind of mechanism very different from the simple apparatus usually employed by nature in ordinary intermittent or spouting springs. The prime mover in this case is evidently steam, an agent sufficiently powerful for the phenomena. The two orifices are manifestly connected; for, as the one jet sinks towards the surface, the other rises, and this in a regular and uniform manner. I observed once, that when one of the jets was sinking, and the other beginning to rise, the first rose again a little before it was quite sunk down, and then when this happened, the other ceased to make any efforts to rise, and returned to its former state, till the first again sunk, when the second rose and played as usual. This communication must be formed in such a manner, that it is never complete, but alternately interrupted, first on one side, and then on the other. To effect this without the intervention of valves, seems to be impossible; and yet it is difficult to conceive the natural formation of a set of permanent valves: so that this fountain becomes one of the greatest curiosities ever presented by nature, even though, in attempting to explain the appearances it exhibits, we take every advantage that machinery can give us. If it is occasioned by natural valves, these must be of very durable materials, in order to withstand the continual agitation and consequent attrition.”
We next proceed to a description of the HOT SPRINGS OF OUACHITTA, (WAs.h.i.+TAW.)--These springs, which have been known for many years, are situated on a stream called Hot Spring Creek, which falls into the Was.h.i.+taw River, eight miles below. They lie fifty miles south of the Arkansa River, in Clark county, territory of Arkansa, (lately Missouri,) and six miles west of the road from Cadron to Mount Prairie, on Red River.
The approach to the springs lies up the valley of the creek. On the right of the valley rises the hot mountain, with the springs issuing at its foot; on the left, the cold mountain, which is little more than a confused and mighty pile of stones. The hot mountain is about 300 feet high, rising quite steep, and presenting occasionally ledges of rocks; it terminates above in a confused ma.s.s of broken rocks. The steep and otherwise sterile sides are covered with a luxuriant growth of vines. The valley between this and the cold mountain is about fifty yards wide.
The springs issue at the foot of the hot mountain, at an elevation of about ten feet above the level of the creek; they are very numerous all along the hill-side, and the water, which runs in copious streams, is quite hot; it will scald the hand, and boil an egg hard in ten minutes.
Its temperature is considered that of boiling water, but Dr. Andrews, of Red River, thinks it is not above 200 Fahr. There is a solitary spring, situated seventy feet higher than the others on the side of the mountain, but it is of an equal temperature, and differs in no respect from those below. A dense fog continually hangs over the springs and upon the side of the hill, which at a distance looks like a number of furnaces in blast. To this fog, condensed into water, is attributed the rank growth of the vines on the side of the mountain.
Very little is known of the chemical nature of the water; an a.n.a.lysis 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 Gren.o.ble; 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 Lancas.h.i.+re, 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 Shrops.h.i.+re. 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 flas.h.i.+ng 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, cras.h.i.+ng, 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 b.e.s.t.i.a.l kind: The bold steed quivers in each panting vein, And staggers, bath'd in deluges of sweat: The lowing herds forsake their gra.s.sy food, And send forth frighted, woful, hollow sounds: The dog, thy trusty centinel of night, Deserts the post a.s.sign'd, and piteous howls.
Wide ocean feels-------- The mountain waves, pa.s.sing 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 sh.o.r.es 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 c.u.mana, 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 s.p.a.ce 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.
[Ill.u.s.tration: EFFECTS OF AN EARTHQUAKE.--Page 499.
The engraving represents the great earthquake of 1755, in which the city of Lisbon, in Portugal, was entirely destroyed, and 20,000 persons were killed.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: SAND STORM OR SAND FLOOD IN THE DESERTS OF ARABIA.--Page 521.
In these terrible whirlwinds of sand, whole caravans are sometimes overwhelmed and destroyed.]
”On the days when the earth is agitated by violent shocks, the regularity of the horary variations of the barometer is not disturbed under the tropics. I have verified this observation at c.u.mana, at Lima, and at Riobamba; and it is so much the more worthy of fixing the attention of natural philosophers, as in St. Domingo, at the town of Cape Francois, it is a.s.serted that a water barometer was observed to sink two inches and a half immediately before the earthquake of 1770. It is also related, that at the time of the destruction of Oran, a druggist fled with his family, because, observing accidentally, a few minutes before the earthquake, the height of the mercury in his barometer, he perceived that the column sunk in an extraordinary manner. I know not whether we can give credit to this a.s.sertion: but as it is nearly impossible to examine the variations of the weight of the atmosphere during the shocks, we must be satisfied in observing the barometer before or after these phenomena have taken place.
In the temperate zone, the aurora borealis does not always modify the variation of the needle, and the intensity of the magnetic forces: perhaps also earthquakes do not act constantly in the same manner on the air that surrounds us.
”We can scarcely doubt, that the earth, when opened and agitated by shocks, occasionally sends forth gaseous exhalations through the atmosphere, in places remote from the mouths of volcanoes not extinct. At c.u.mana, as we have already observed, flames and vapours, mixed with sulphureous acid, spring up from the most arid soil. In other parts of the same province, the earth ejects water and petroleum. At Riobamba, a muddy and inflammable ma.s.s, which is called moya, issues from crevices that close again, and acc.u.mulates into elevated hills. At seven leagues from Lisbon, near Colares, during the terrible earthquake of the 1st of November, 1755, flames, and a column of thick smoke, were seen to issue from the flanks of the rocks of Alvidras, and, according to some witnesses, from the bosom of the sea. This smoke lasted several days, and it was the more abundant in proportion as the subterraneous noise, which accompanied the shocks, was louder.