Û64 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



which, when in a ftate of life, are brown, red, and 

 of various other colours, but which, being rooted 

 up, and put into fea-water, on the brink of the 

 ihore, in a little time become white as fnovv. Nay 

 more, if you fifh in the fea for a crab, or a fea- 

 nrchin, and have them dried, to preferve them, 

 unlefs you firft wafli them in frefh water, all the 

 claws of the crab, and all the prickles of the ur- 

 chin, will fall off. The joints by which the limbs 

 are attached, diflblve in proportion as the fea- 

 water, with which they were moiftened, evapo- 

 rates. I myfelf have made this experiment to my 

 coft. The water of the Sea is impregnated not 

 only with fait, but with bitumen, and other fub- 

 flances befides, which we do not know ; but fait 

 is in it, in fuch a proportion, as to affift the diffo- 

 lution of cadaverous bodies floating in it, as that 

 which we mingle with our food afTifts digeftion. 

 Had Nature made it a pickle, the Ocean would 

 be covered with all the impurities of the Earth, 

 which would thus be kept in a ftate of perpetual 

 prefer vation. 



Thefe obfervations will indicate to us the ufe of 

 volcanos. They do not proceed from the internal 

 fires of the Earth, but they derive their origin, 

 and the materials which keep them up, from the 

 waters. In order to be convinced of this, you 

 have only to remark, that there is not a fingle vol- 

 cano 



