MOFFAT WATERS. 241 dreary, in summer the village is all life and bustle. The two inns accommodate a considerable number, and there are several private lodging-houses in which families can be accommodated. THE climate of Moffat is said to be remarkably healthy, and the air so extremely pure, as to occasion sneezing and other marks of superoxygenation in persons not accustomed to it, particularly if they have lived for some time in a large town or confined situation: its effects are particularly exhilarating and bracing, as I have myself experienced; and though the showers of rain are frequent and sometimes heavy, as might be expected in a mountainous country, yet a moist or foggy atmosphere is seldom seen. Every opening of the clouds discovers a sky of a beautiful azure, which, in a clear day, assumes a distinctness and brightness that might vie with an Italian sky. These circumstances, with exercise, contribute, perhaps, as much as the waters to restore the exhausted and debilitated constitution. THE mineral waters are of two kinds, sulphureous and chalybeate; the first has long been distinguished by the name of the Moffat Well, and is situated about a mile and a half from the village. A good carriage road has been made to it, and there is a room and stables for the accommodation of the drinking the water. company while THE spring oozes out of a rock, at the distance of two or three yards only from a little rivulet; a few yards above it is a bog, from whence it probably derives its sulphureous impregnation. The well is covered over with a stone building, inclosing a pump: on one of the stones of this building is the following inscription: Æque pauperibus prodest And on a stone about three yards distant from the building, the following: Infirmo capiti fluit utilis, utilis alvo. THE water has a strong smell resembling bilge water, or the scourings of a foul gun, like the sulphureous waters of Harrowgate, though not quite so strong. It has a slight saline taste, and sparkles considerably when first taken from the spring, particularly when poured out of one glass into another. The sides of the well are lined with a whitish crust, and when the water has been suffered to stand for some days without pumping, it becomes covered with a white film; both these, when dried, burn with a blueish flame and suffocating smell, which indicate their being sulphur. ON the ninth of October, when the temperature of the air was 54°, and that of the adjoining brook 48°, the temperature of the spaw was 50o. SULPHUREOUS WATER. 243 THE next day, when the temperature of the air was 60°, that of the spaw was 49°. THE following experiments were made on the water taken from this well, with the view of ascertaining the nature of its contents. 1. Characters written on paper with acetite of lead, were rendered visible on being immersed in the water. The colour was at first brown, and on remaining longer, quite black. 2. A solution of acetite of lead in distilled water, dropped into the water, caused a copious brown precipitate. 3. Tincture of galls produced no change. 4. Lime water produced a very slight turbidness. 5. Tincture of turnsole produced scarcely any sensible redness. 6. Acid of sugar produced no change. 7. Muriat of barytes produced no effect. 8. Nitrat of silver caused a white cloudy appearance, with a copious precipitate. 9. When the water had been boiled for a few minutes, it was not changed by any of these precipitants, except the nitrat of silver. FROM the first and second of these experiments, it appears that the water is impregnated with sulphurated hydrogen gas; the third shows that it contains no iron; the fourth and fifth indicate but a small quantity of carbonic acid. From the sixth, |