476 NATURAL HISTORY. 



to tremble. The cause is, for that the little motes 

 which we see in the sun do ever stir, though there 

 be no wind ; and therefore those moving, in the 

 meeting of the light and the shadow, from the light 

 to the shadow, and from the shadow to the light, do 

 shew the shadow to move, because the medium 

 moveth. 



Experiment solitary touching the rolling and breaking 



of the seas. 



880. Shallow and narrow seas break more than 

 deep and large. The cause is, for that, the im 

 pulsion being the same in both, where there is 

 greater quantity of water, and likewise space enough, 

 there the water rolleth and moveth, both more 

 slowly, and with a sloper rise and fall: but where 

 there is less water, and less space, and the water 

 dasheth more against the bottom, there it moveth 

 more swiftly, and more in precipice ; for in the break 

 ing of the waves there is ever a precipice. 



Experiment solitary touching the dulcoration of salt 



water. 



881. It hath been observed by the ancients, that 

 salt water boiled, or boiled and cooled again, is more 

 potable, than of itself raw : and yet the taste of salt 

 in distillations by fire riseth not, for the distilled 

 water will be fresh. The cause may be, for that the 

 salt part of the water doth partly rise into a kind of 

 scum on the top, and partly goeth into a sediment in 

 the bottom, and so is rather a separation than an 



