388 THE CHEMISTRY OF CREATION. 



to have an extraordinary stress upon it, no 

 fewer than twenty-five men being necessary to 

 raise it. After several hours of toil, the boat 

 which had been sunk was recovered, and was 

 now so heavy as to require a boat at each end 

 to keep it from sinking. On being examined, the 

 paint canle off in large strips, and the wood was 

 so penetrated with water by the enormous pres- 

 sure of the depths to which it had been dragged, 

 that a piece of it sank like iron in the water, and 

 it would not even burn when apparently dry and 

 placed on a fire. 



Many interesting experiments have been 

 carried on, both in our own country and on 

 the continent, to prove what the Florentine 

 academicians, in their celebrated experiment 

 upon the compression of water in a sphere of 

 gold, considered they had finally -disproved 

 the compressibility and elasticity of water. 

 Although much less compressible than air, or 

 gaseous bodies, it is still capable of diminution 

 or increase in bulk, according as the pressure 

 on its surface is greater or less. The experi- 

 ment with the bottle of water sufficiently indi- 

 cates this : but the fact has been accurately 

 ascertained by philosophers. By means of an 

 ingeniously constructed apparatus, Mr. Perkins 

 obtained a striking evidence of the compressi- 

 bility of water, in the index of the instrument, 



