80 SPRINGS. 



lected its due measure, runs on again in its usual strength 

 and fullness." 



There are several of these intermitting springs in 

 different parts of the world, and they are perhaps all 

 to be explained on the principle of the siphon. 



In the Idyls of Theocritus there are frequent allu- 

 sions to springs. It was at a spring and a mount- 

 ain spring at that that Castor and Pollux encoun- 

 tered the plug-ugly Amycus : 



" And spying on a mountain a wild wood of vast size, 

 they found under a smooth cliff an ever-flowing spring, 

 filled with pure water, and the pebbles beneath seemed 

 like crystal or silver from the depths ; and near there had 

 grown tall pines, and poplars, and plane-trees, and cy- 

 presses with leafy tops, and fragrant flowers, pleasant 

 work for hairy bees," etc. 



Or the story of Hylas, the auburn-haired boy, who 

 went to the spring to fetch water for supper for Her- 

 cules and stanch Telamon, and was seized by the 

 enamored nymphs and drawn in. The spring was evi- 

 dently a marsh or meadow spring : it was in a " low-ly- 

 ing spot, and around it grew many rushes, and the pale 

 blue swallow-wort, and green maiden hair, and bloom- 

 ing parsley, and conch grass stretching through the 

 marshes." As Hercules was tramping through the 

 bog, club in hand, and shouting " Hylas ! " to the full 

 depth of his throat, he heard a thin voice come from 

 the water, it was Hylas responding, and Hylas, in 

 the shape of the little frog, has been calling from oui 

 tnaish springs ever since. 



