About a mile from Wigan, in Lancashire, is a spring, the water of which
burns like oil. On applying a lighted candle to the surface, a large
flame is suddenly produced, and burns vigorously. A dishful of water
having been taken up at the part whence the flame issues, and a lighted
candle held to it, the flame goes out; notwithstanding which the water
in this part boils and rises up like water in a pot on the fire, but
does not feel warm on introducing the hand. What is still more
extraordinary, on making a dam, and preventing the flowing of fresh
water to the ignited part, that which was already there having been
drained away, a burning candle being applied to the surface of the dry
earth at the same point where the water before burned, the fumes take
fire, and burn with a resplendent light, the cone of the flame ascending
a foot and a half from the surface of the earth. It is not discolored,
like that of sulphureous bodies, neither has it any manifest smell, nor
do the fumes, in their ascent, betray any sensible heat. The latter
unquestionably consist of inflammable air, or hydrogen gas; and it ought
to be observed that the whole of the country about Wigan, for the
compass of several miles, is underlaid with coal. This phenomenon may
therefore be referred to the same cause which occasioned the dreadful
explosion of Felling colliery; but in the present case, this destructive
gas, instead of being pent up in the bowels of the earth, accompanies
the water in its passage to the surface.