12 On Terrestrial or Epigeic Deposits 



at a small height above the level of the sea, we were of opinion 

 that, in certain cases, this eifect might have arisen from the re- 

 pulsion produced by the superior density of the sea-water. Of 

 this fact we have at least one proof, in lake Ino, near Epidaurus 

 Limera (the coastsof the Monembasia), which, in consequence of 

 this singularity, had acquired oracular honours. It is a circu- 

 lar cavity, from four to five metres in diameter, in the midst of 

 compact limestones ; its distance from the sea is not more than 

 100 to 150 metres, and it is not more than two metres above its 

 level ; though its depth be unknown (a plummet of thirty metres 

 could not reach the bottom), it is in all seasons filled to the brim 

 with water, slightly brackish. It appears to us that these vari- 

 ous circumstances prevent us from considering the lake in any 

 other light than as one of the branches of a syphon, of which 

 the other would terminate below the level of the sea, at a depth 

 which the difference in the density of the fresh and sea-water, 

 and the elevation of two metres of the level of the lake, might 

 fix at 77 metres. 



Temperature and Nature of the Waters in the Kephalovrysi. 

 — We have observed the Kephalovrysi of the rivers of Greece 

 in various seasons of the year, and have seen with surprise that 

 their waters i-etain the same purity, the same temperature, and 

 nearly the same volume, after the melting of the snows, in the 

 rainy season, and during the long drouglit of summer. 



When the recesses of the interior basins receive an enormous 

 mass of muddy water of a deep red, the springs of the banks of 

 Argolis flow pure and limpid, and only carry along a little cal- 

 careous sand. In the extent of their subterraneous course, there 

 must therefore be lakes in which deposits of sand and mud are 

 found ; and the waters have afterwards to pass through narrow 

 conduits, which do not allow of an increase in the volume of the 

 sources of the springs, but in the ratio of the increase of pressure. 



The great quantity of bubbles, which, in spring, are disen- 

 gaged from all these springs, especially from that of the Erasi- 

 nus, marks distinctly the increase of pressure in the air of the in- 

 ternal caverns. 



Our observations on the temperature of the Kephalovrysi 

 lead to similar results. We have carefully ascertained, at diffe- 

 rent periods of the year, the temperature of the sources of 



