28 Peculiar Property of Water 



creatures. It is plain that we have passed beyond 

 science — which is true to itself in having nothing to 

 do with significance or "increasing purpose." But 

 science is not the be-all and end-all of our outlook on 

 the world and estimate of our place in it. From a 

 broader basis we say that it looks as if Inorganic 

 Nature was as it is with a purpose. 



Perhaps our position may be made clearer if we 

 take the particular case of the freezing of water. As 

 we all know, water has the almost unique property of 

 expanding near the freezing point, instead of con- 

 tracting as is usual with cooling bodies. For £80 days 

 in the year the water near the bottom of a pool or 

 pond is colder than the water near the surface, and 

 this works out most appropriately well for many 

 aquatic animals that like moderate coolness. But for 

 85 days in the year the water near the bottom of the 

 pool or pond is warmer than that at the surface, and 

 this is also well. When the frost's fingers go deep, the 

 water near the floor of the pool begins to get very cold, 

 and it reaches its maximum density at 4° C. When it 

 becomes still colder it expands, whereas every ordinary 

 fluid contracts; and this expansion raises it to the 

 surface, where it freezes and adds to the thickness of 

 the blanket of ice. In this way it is difficult for a pool 

 to freeze solid, and this means a preservation of the 

 fresh- water fauna during the winter in North Tem- 

 perate countries. From this far-reaching conse- 

 quences follow. It seems as if it were well thought 

 out! 



