1 34 Springs, River s^ and the Sea. 



creatures which now live therein, could 

 then have being ; from hence also the sea 

 water becomes much heavier ; and there- 

 fore ships of greater size and quantity 

 may be used thereon. Salt water also 

 doth not freeze so soon as fresh water, 

 whence the seas are more free for navi- 

 gation. 



The most re mark able thing in the sea, 

 is that motion of the water called tides. It 

 is a rising and falling of the water of the 

 sea. The cause of this is the attraction of 

 the moon, whereby the part of the water 

 in the great ocean which is nearest the 

 moon being most strongly attracted, is 

 raised higher than the rest ; and the part 

 opposite to it, on the contrary side, being 

 least attracted, is also higher than the rest. 

 And these two opposite rises of the sur- 

 face of the water in the great ocean, fol- 

 lowing the motion of the moon from east 

 to west, and striking against the large 

 coasts of the continents that lie in their 

 way, from thence rebound back again, 

 and so make floods and ebbs in narrow 

 seas, and rivers remote from the great 

 ocean. 



As the earth, by its daily rotation round 

 its axis, goes from the moon to the moon 



