Page:Transactions of the Geological Society, 1st series, vol. 1.djvu/226

 excuse for having thus expanded an account from which they were almost inseparable.

It is about two years since my attention was directed to this chalybeate spring by Dr. Saunders, to whom in consequence of his valuable treatise on mineral waters, inquiries of this kind are frequently referred. Having been requested by him, and soon afterwards by the discoverer of the spring, Mr. Waterworth, Surgeon, of Newport, to examine this water, I soon perceived by a few preliminary experiments, that its principal ingredients were sulphat of iron and sulphat of alumine, and that it possessed a degree of strength far more considerable than any mineral water of the same kind that had ever come to my knowledge.

This last circumstance, and the probability that this spring might some day attract public notice from its medicinal properties, induced me to undertake the present analysis, which, after many interruptions, I have at length brought to a conclusion.

§ 1. Situation and Natural History of the Spring.

This spring is situated on the south-west coast of the Isle of Wight, about two miles to the westward of Niton, in one of those romantic spots for which that coast is so remarkable.

In its present state it may be said to be of difficult access, for there is no carriage road, nor even any regular foot-path along the cliff leading to it, and the walk would appear somewhat arduous to those unaccustomed to pedestrian excursions. But it would be practicable, and probably not very expensive, to render this path equally easy and