36 NATURAL AND CIVIL 



tlie sea, and driven upon the lands by the winds,- 

 and return in the form of rains, are more thait 

 sufficient to supply the earth with all the water 

 that it needs ; and to form the fountains, springs, 

 and rivers, which are perpetually discharging 

 themselves into the ocean, Phil. Trans. Vol. 

 2. p. 128. 



Both these theories agree in deriving the 

 water originally from the sea ; nor does there 

 seem much difficulty in admitting the principle 

 of either : The former seems most naturally to 

 account for those perennial springs, which nev- 

 er fail when the rains have ceased for months ; 

 and the latter serves to explain the cause of 

 those, v/hich are temporary, or intermitting. 



In tlie plains, hills, and mountains in this 

 part of the continent, there is scarcely a place 

 in which water may not be found at the depth 

 of thirty or forty feet from the surface of the 

 earth ; nor does there appear to be any more 

 difficult}^ to have a well with permanent water, 

 in the one than in the other of these situations. 

 It must therefore be admitted as a well estab- 

 lished fact, that the earth at that depth is well" 

 saturratcd ^vith water ; nor does it fail, nor is 

 the temperature of the earth at that depth much 

 affected, in the hottest, or in the dryest season 

 that we ever hsLve. It may be presumed there- 

 fore that the effect of the solar heat, and the 

 evaporation produced by it, does not extend 

 much below that depth ; and that every where 

 below, the earth is saturrated with water by the 

 attraction or affinity that takes place between' 

 the particles of the one and those of the other. 



It is customary with the farmers in the 



