» WITH THE SALT WATER OF THE SEA. 509 
ceased to be perceptible in the boat at anchor ; and I obtained 
water from the bottom, the middle, and the surface of the 
stream. The water taken from the surface of the stream, was 
fresh, and tasted like ordinary river water. The water taken 
from the middle, was not perceptibly different ; but that which 
was brought frem the bottem was sensibly brackish. The wa- 
ter from the surface did not coniain any salt, as a thousand 
grains of it, when evaporated with care on a sand-bath, left on- 
ly a grain and a half of residue, apparently mud, which, when 
applied to the tongue, communicated no impression of salt- 
ness. The water from the middle of the stream yielded two 
grains of residue, when the same quantity was evaporated, of 
a whiter colour than the former, and having a perceptibly salt 
taste. ‘The water from the bottom, which was saltish even to 
the taste, yielded four grains of saline matter. According to 
these experiments, the layers of water were arranged accord- 
ing to their densities, the heaviest water occupying the bottom 
of the stream, and the lightest floating on the surface. 
At halflood, I repeated the experiments on the waters ob- 
tained from the same situations as before. The water at the 
surface had now become very sensibly salt to the taste, and 
thus gave decided proofs of the progress of the tide. The 
three bottles of water now obtained, yielded results, not 
in unison with those already taken notice of. The arrange- 
ment of the different strata of water, according to their den- 
sities, as observed at ebb-tide, was in some degree rever- 
sed; for here the water at the surface was salter than that 
which was obtained from the bottom, and the water from the 
middle was salter than either. A thousand grains of water 
from the bottom, yielded by evaporation only ten grains of sa- 
line matter, while the water from the surface yielded eleven 
grains, and from the middle twelve grains, by the same pro-. 
cess. 
S5'2 This 
