CENTURY I. 49 



mon water : which is a notable instance of conden 

 sation and induration by burial under earth, in caves, 

 for long time ; and of version also, as it should seem, 

 of air into water; if any of those vessels were empty. 

 Try therefore a small bladder hung in snow, and the 

 like in nitre, and the like in quicksilver : and if you 

 find the bladders fallen or shrunk, you may be sure 

 the air is condensed by the cold of those bodies, as 

 it would be in a cave under earth. 



78. It is reported of very good credit, that in the 

 East Indies, if you set a tub of water open in a room 

 where cloves are kept, it will be drawn dry in 

 twenty-four hours ; though it stand at some distance 

 from the cloves. In the country, they use many 

 times, in deceit, when their wool is new shorn, to 

 set some pails of water by in the same room, to in 

 crease the weight of the wool. But it may be, that 

 the heat of the wool, remaining from the body of the 

 sheep, or the heat gathered by the lying close of the 

 wool, helpeth to draw the watery vapour: but that 

 is nothing to the version. 



79. It is reported also credibly, that wool new 

 shorn, being laid casually upon a vessel of verjuice, 

 after some time, had drunk up a great part of the 

 verjuice, though the vessel were whole without any 

 flaw, and had not the bung-hole open. In this in 

 stance, there is, upon the by, to be noted, the per 

 colation or suing of the verjuice through the wood ; 

 for verjuice of itself would never have passed through 

 the wood : so as, it seemeth, it must be first in a 

 kind of vapour, before it pass. 



VOL. IV. 



