Travels in Kamtschatka (Vol. 1&2). Jean-Baptiste Barthélemy de Lesseps

day; in the evening it was finished, though an additional staircase had been cut out to form a communication between the barn and the bathing house, whose door was to the north.

      Our habitations being insupportable during the night, on account of the cold, M. Kasloff resolved to quit them, four days after our arrival. We returned to the village to shelter ourselves with the toyon; but the attraction of the baths led us back every day, oftener twice than once, and we scarcely ever came away without bathing.

      The various constructions which M. Kasloff ordered for the greater convenience of his establishment, detained us two days longer. Animated by a love of virtue and humanity, he enjoyed the pleasure of having procured these salutary and pleasant baths for his poor Kamtschadales. The uninformed state of their minds, or perhaps their indolence, would, without his succour, have deprived them of this benefit, notwithstanding their extreme confidence in these hot springs for the cure of a variety of diseases[24]. This made M. Kasloff desirous of ascertaining the properties of these waters; we agreed to analyse them, by means of a process which had been given him for this purpose. But before I speak of the result of our experiments, it is necessary to transcribe the process, in order the better to trace the mode we adopted.

      "Water in general may contain,

      "1. Fixed air; in that case it has a sharp and sourish taste, like lemonade, without sugar.

      "2. Iron or copper; and then it has an astringent and disagreeable taste, like ink.

      "3. Sulphur, or sulphurous vapours; and then it has a very nauseous taste, like a stale and rotten egg.

      "4. Vitriolic, or marine, or alkaline salt.

      "5. Earth,"

       Fixed Air.

      "To ascertain the fixed air, the taste is partly sufficient; but pour into the water some tincture of turnsol, and the water will become more or less red, in proportion to the quantity of fixed air it contains."

       Iron.

      "The iron may be known by means of the galnut and phlogisticated alkali; the galnut put into feruginous water, will change its colour to purple, or violet, or black; and the phlogisticated alkali will produce immediately Prussian blue."

       Copper.

      "Copper may be ascertained by means of the phlogisticated alkali or volatile alkali; the first turns the water to a brown red, and the second to a blue. The last mode is the surest, because the volatile alkali precipitates copper only, and not iron."

       Sulphur.

      "Sulphur and sulphurous vapours may be known by pouring, 1. nitrous acid into the water; if a yellowish or whitish sediment be formed by it, there is sulphur, and at the same time a sulphurous odour will be exhaled and evaporate. 2. By pouring some drops of a solution of corrosive sublimate; if it occasion a white sediment, the water contains only vapours of liver of sulphur; and if the sediment be black, the water contains sulphur only."

       Vitriolic Salt.

      "Water may contain vitriolic salts; that is salts resulting from the combination of the vitriolic acid with calcareous earth, iron, copper, or with an alkali. The vitriolic acid may be ascertained by pouring some drops of a solution of heavy earth; for then a sandy sediment will be formed, which will settle slowly at the bottom of the vessel."

       Marine Salt.

      "Water may contain marine salt, which may be ascertained by pouring into it some drops of a solution of silver; a white sediment will immediately be formed of the consistency of curdled milk, which will at last turn to a dark violet colour."

       Fixed Alkali.

      "Water may contain fixed alkali, which may be ascertained by pouring into it some drops of a solution of corrosive sublimate; when a reddish sediment will be formed."

       Calcareous Earth.

      "Water may contain calcareous earth and magnesia. Some drops of acid of sugar poured into the water, will precipitate the calcareous earth in whitish clouds, which will at length subside and afford a white sediment. A few drops of a solution of corrosive sublimate, will produce a reddish sediment, but very gradually, if the water contain magnesia.

      "Note. To make these experiments with readiness and certainty, the water to be analysed should be reduced one half by boiling it, except in the case of the fixed air, which would evaporate in the boiling."

      Having thoroughly studied the process, we began our experiments. The three first producing no effect, we concluded that the water contained neither fixed air, iron, nor copper; but upon the mixture of the nitrous acid, mentioned for the fourth experiment, we perceived a light substance settle upon the surface, of a whitish colour, and extending but a little way, which led us to believe that the quantity of sulphur, or of sulphurous vapours, must be infinitely small.

      The fifth experiment proved that the water contained vitriolic salts, or at least vitriolic acid mixed with calcareous earth. We ascertained the existence of this acid, by pouring some drops of a solution of heavy earth into the water, which became white and nebulous, and the sediment that slowly settled at the bottom of the vessel appeared whitish and in very fine grains.

      We had no solution of silver for the sixth experiment, in order to ascertain whether the water contained marine salt.

      The seventh proved that it had no fixed alkali.

      By the eighth experiment, we found that the water contained a great quantity of calcareous earth, but no magnesia. Having poured some drops of acid of sugar, we observed the calcareous earth precipitate to the bottom of the vessel in clouds and a powder of a whitish colour; we mixed afterwards some solution of corrosive sublimate to find the magnesia; but the sediment, instead of becoming red, preserved the same colour as before; a proof that the water contained no magnesia.

      We made use of this water for tea and for our common drink. It was not till after three or four days that we found it contained some saline particles.

      M. Kasloff boiled also some of the water taken at the spring, till it became totally evaporated; the whitish and very salt earth or powder which remained at the bottom of the vessel, as well as the effect it produced on us, proved that this water contained nitrous salts.

      We remarked also that the stones taken out of this stream were covered with a calcareous substance tolerably thick, and of an undulated appearance, which, when mixed with the vitriolic and nitrous acid, produced symptoms of effervescence. We examined others taken from what appeared to be the fountain head of the waters, and where they have the greater degree of heat; we found them covered with a stratum of a kind of metal, if I may so call a hard and compact envelopement of the colour of refined copper, but the quality of which we could not ascertain; we found also some of this metal, which appeared like the heads of pins; but no acid could dissolve it. Upon breaking these stones, we discovered the inside to be very soft and mixed with gravel, with which I had observed these streams to abound.

      I ought to add here, that we discovered upon the border of the stream, and in a little moving swamp that was near it, a gum, or singular fucus[25], that was glutinous, but did not adhere to the ground.

      Such are the observations which I made upon these hot waters, by assisting M. Kasloff in his experiments and enquiries. I dare not flatter myself with having given the result of our operations in a satisfactory manner; forgetfulness, or want of information upon the subject, may have led me into errors; I can only say that I have exerted all my attention and care to be accurate; but acknowledge at the same time, that, if there be defects, they are ascribable to me.

      During our stay at these baths and at the ostrog of Natchikin, our horses had brought, at different times, the effects which we had left at Koriaki, and we began to make preparations for our departure. In this interval I had an opportunity of seeing a sable taken alive; the method was very singular, and may give some idea of the manner of hunting these animals.

      At some distance from the baths, M. Kasloff