Elements of Chemical and Physical Geology Volume 1 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1854 Excerpt: ... penetrating odour of carbonic acid is perceived. Upon the fields are patches where vegetation is very scanty, and the odour of carbonic acid is very distinct near the surface, especially in wet weather. Bubbles of gas escape uninterruptedly at many parts of the brooks; at one spot, where this evolution of gas was especially abundant, the owner of the land, supposing it to be due to the presence of a mineral spring, led the brook round by another course, in order to take advantage of it. The earth was dug out all round, to the depth of 12 or 15 feet, the hole becoming filled partly with spring-water and partly by the water of the brook. By this means, many channels were opened from which immense quantities of gas streamed out. Several cellars in the village of Burgbrohl are filled with carbonic acid gas to such an extent that they could not be entered; and in the excavation of new cellars the workmen were much troubled by the evolution of gas. All these phenomena are repeated in other valleys near the Lake of Laach, and indeed more strikingly the deeper the valleys become. It is on this account that they are most prominent in the valley of Burgbrohl, which is the deepest of all. At the Lake of Laach, a few paces from the shore, is an exhalation of carbonic acid, which has long been known. All these exhalations, however, originate from deeper carbonated springs; in no case can carbonic acid proceed from the original focus of its evolution without meeting with water. The circumstance that the temperature of such exhalations is, according to numerous observations which I have made, always very near that of the adjoining carbonated springs, testifies to this. Upon the eastern shore of the Lake of Laach bubbles of carbonic acid rise abundantly. A mile from the l...