Fowle's New Hampshire Gazette And General Advertiser

There is a curiosity in Virginia which seems unparalleled any where.---In the county of Fincastle, there is a small running water, or spring, possessed of a quality which cannot be defined (though supposed to be a mineral water, strongly impregnated with sulphur, or some such thing) however, by snapping the pan of a pistol, or tinder-box, with a little gunpowder, the water will instantly catch fire, and burn in the same manner as spirits would, until the water is entirely consumed, or dried up, when the channel, which is common earth, is left as ashes. There being no more water left to feed the flame, the spring bubbles out from the crevices of earth as usual, and in the space of half an hour the current goes on as formerly. The water continues, when such experiments are tried by people, for two or three days before the whole is consumed.