340 HUNTERS. 



performance of every fundion, that it be- 

 comes entitled to a proper degree of con- 

 fideration ; but knowing (from the very- 

 nature of the inquiry) how little attention 

 would be paid to a tedious and defultory 

 difFuiion of matter, upon the different 

 kinds of water, their properties, the mine- 

 ral particles they contain, the dillind: ftrata 

 through vv'hich they run and become im- 

 pregnated as they pafs, with their pro- 

 bable or pofjlble effed:s upon the conftitu- 

 lions of horfes, would lead us again into 

 a very extenfive and unentertaining field 

 of phyfical difquifition, that we wifh by 

 no means to renew, unlefs it could tend 

 to enlighten the fubjecft or improve the 

 judgment. In an attempt to fucceed ef- 

 fedually in either, Bracken mufl be 

 eventually cited to juflify on^ allertion, 

 Clarke to demonftrate another; the fum 

 total of all which, could amount only to 

 an accumulation of conjecflure refpefting 

 ft one ^ gravely and ftrangury, w^ithout any 

 thing being pofitively afccrtained, by a ca- 

 talogue of conditional fuppofitions, founded 

 upon the various properties of different 



w^atcrs, 



