44 2fo Principles of Part II. 



RAIN-WATER, efpecially in the fpring, 

 has nearly the fame contents. Margraaf, 

 in the Academ. de Berlin, vol. j. has ana- 

 lyfed it with great accuracy, and mowed 

 that it contains a nitrous and a fea-falt, 

 with a confiderable quantity of an abforbent 

 earth j which probably was united to a 

 nitrous acid before evaporation, and con- 

 fequently increafed the quantity of nitrous 

 fait very much. The falts were of a brown 

 colour, which difcovered its oil. As the 

 water was gathered in the winter, it con- 

 tained a fmaller proportion of this laft 

 body, than if it had been gathered in the 

 fummer. 



SNOW is juftly reckoned amongft thofe 

 bodies which frudlifv earth. I have obferved 



j 



a light floating oozy fediment at the bottom 

 of fnow-water, after I had kept it three or 

 four days. When fnow melts, its furface, 

 ' even in the tops of hills, is covered with a 

 brown powder, Bath rain and fnow-water 

 putrify fconer than fpring water j which 



{hows 



