632 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and debates, it is determined to correct this inequality of material 

 nature by passing a law doubling the specific gravity of water in 

 the lakes, so that ocean vessels drawing twenty-four feet of water 

 can sail upon the lakes with little more than twelve. Is it not 

 apparent that this single law would destroy the adjustment and 

 adaptation of ages ? Fish having been developed in water of 

 normal density could no longer live in the lakes ; the weeds and 

 grasses which had grown upon the bed of the lakes would be up- 

 rooted by the water of double weight, to float upon the surface, 

 and, being subjected to the sun's rays, would decompose and scat- 

 ter the germs of pestilence and disease. The weight of water 

 being doubled, it is made a little heavier than sand, so that the 

 farms of sandy soils in Michigan and adjoining States would float 

 away upon the waters of the lakes. Trees would be uprooted, the 

 heavier clay soils, bridges, wharves, and railroad embankments 

 washed away. 



Then would follow an active period of legislation to neutral- 

 ize the evil consequences resulting from the original interfer- 

 ence with normal adjustments and relations. While seeking to 

 retain all the advantages gained to commerce by the increased 

 weight of water, law after law to restore the equilibrium would 

 be enacted, and, where harmony and universal order once held 

 sway, confusion worse confounded would obtain. That soils and 

 lands might not be washed away, laws would be passed doub- 

 ling their specific gravity, which would bring them nearly to the 

 density of stone, rendering tillage very difficult and costly, while 

 the seeds could no longer pierce through to the surface. In order 

 that railway embankments might stand and resist these waters of 

 such tremendous weight, the specific gravity of materials used in 

 their construction is also doubled, but doubling the weight doubles 

 the cost of handling and constructing, and the estimates of con- 

 tractors and engineers prove worthless. Is it not evident that the 

 waters of the lakes being doubled in weight leaves all other 

 forms of matter correspondingly light, and the selfish propensi- 

 ties of men are at once aroused. Those interested in shipping de- 

 sire water of increased specific gravity; those subject to floods 

 demand legislation looking to a decrease in the weight of water ; 

 while the much-abused doctrinaire declares that the normal ad- 

 justments of ages upon ages could not be disturbed without disas- 

 trous consequences, for one law changing the relation of water to 

 other forms of matter, makes necessary the passage of thousands 

 of intricate laws in order to restore the equilibrium so ruthlessly 

 destroyed, because of the vain attempt to enlarge the scope and 

 power of one element without the corresponding diminution and 

 weakening of all others. 



In the contemplation of the material world, no discovery of 



