o is described as
apothecary to the Grand Duke, first detected the presence of boracic
acid in the lagoon Orcherio, near Monte Botardo. Masgagin, a professor
of anatomy, found the mineral in a concrete state in several streams
issuing from the lagoons, and suggested the propriety of establishing
manufactories of borax. As late, however, as 1801, in consequence of the
failure of numerous experiments, Professor Gazzeri arrived at the
conclusion that the quantity of acid contained in the water of the
lagoons was too small to render the working of them profitable. But this
opinion was based on the old practice of attempting the extracting the
mineral by the use of charcoal furnaces. It was M. Larderel who
introduced the improved method of employing the hot vapors of the
lagoons themselves in the elaboration of the acid, and may be said to
have invented the present method, which will probably go on improving
for ages.

The system of the Chevalier Larderel, now Comte de Pomerasce, displays
at once great ingenuity and courage. The _soffioni_, or vapors, having
been observed to burst forth with more or less vehemence in various
parts of the mountains--which, fortunately for industry and commerce,
are copiously irrigated with streams of water--the idea was conceived of
forming an artificial lagoon on the site of the most elevated vent. A
large basin having been excavated, the nearest stream was turned into
it. The burning blasts from below forcing up their way through the
water, keep it in a state of perpetual ebullition, and by degrees
impregnate it with boracic acid. Nothing can be more striking than the
appearance of such a lagoon. Surrounded by aridity and barrenness, its
surface presents the aspect of a huge caldron, boiling and steaming
perpetually, while its margin trembles, and resounds with the furious
explosions from below. Sometimes the vapor issues like a thread from the
water, and after rising for a considerable height, spreads, and assumes
an arborescent form as it is diluted by the atmospheric air. It then
goes circling over the surface of the lagoon, till, meeting with other
bodies of vapor in a similar condition, the whole commingling,
constitute a diminutive cloud, which is wafted by the breeze up the
peaks of the mountains, or precipitated into the valleys, according to
its comparative density.

To stand on the brink of one of these deadly lakes, stunned by
subterranean thunder, shaken by incessant earthquak