642 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 11 



Btitution, who living in a clear air, and removing 

 towards the sea-coasr, was lamentably afflicted 

 therewith, which both mypolfand others attributed 

 to this cause, she having tbrmerly iJj)on her going 

 to the same, been seized in the same manner. 

 But to return. There is one thing more in refer- 

 ence to tiiis ver}' thing, very remarkable in Virgi- 

 nia; generally twice in the year, spring and fall, 

 at certain spring-tides, the most of the cattle will 

 set on gadding, and run, tho' it be twenty or thirty 

 miles, to the river to drink the salt water, at which 

 time there's scarce any stopping of them ; which 

 the people know so well, that if about those times 

 their heards are slray'd from their plantations, 

 without more solicitation, they go directly to the 

 rivers to letch them home again. As for the 

 Avaters in the springs in general, they are, I thmk, 

 somewhat more eager than those in England. In 

 that, I have observed, they require some quantity 

 more of malt to make strong beer, than our Eng- 

 lish waters, and will not bear soap. I have try'd 

 several by infusing of galls, and Ibund little differ- 

 ence in the colours, turning much what the colour 

 of common sack in taverns. I tried two wells at 

 Col. Bird's, by the falls of James River, several 

 wells near James Town, some springs in the Isle 

 of Wight County. There's a spring in the Isle of 

 iVight, or JVansamond County, vents the createst 

 source of water I ever saw, excepting Holy-well 

 in IVales, but I had not opportunity to make expe- 

 riments thereof. I tried likewise some springs 

 on the banks of York River, in New Kent and 

 Gloucester County, but found them vary very little 

 as to colour. T could not try an^' thing as to their 

 specifick gravity, havinji neither aquapoise, nor 

 those other glasses I had contrived peculiarlv lor 

 making such experiments, they being all lost wiih 

 ray other things. I had glasses blown would 

 hold about five ounces, others about -ten ounces, 

 with necks so small, that a drop would make a 

 considerable variation ; with these I could make 

 much more critical and satisfiictory observations as 

 to the specifical gravity of liquors, having critical 

 scales, than by any other way yet by me tried. I 

 used this method to weigh urines, v?hich practice 

 I would recommend to the inquisitive and critical 

 physicians. I had made many observations 

 hereof: but all notes were likewise lost with my 

 other thin<rs. Yet I have begun afresh ; lor there 

 are more signal variations in the weights of urines, 

 than one would at first imagin ; and when the eye 

 can discover little, but judge two urines to be 

 alike, they may be found to differ very much as to 

 weight. By weight, I find observations may be 

 made of afl'ections in the head, which rarely make 

 any visible alterations m the urine. I have found 

 two urines not much unlike, ditfi^r two and twenty 



trains in the quantity of about four or five ounces : 

 ut let them that make these essays, weigh all 

 their urines when cold, lest they be thereby de- 

 ceiv'd. But to return to the spring waters in Vir- 

 ginia. There's a spring at my Lady Berkleifs, 

 called Green-Spring, whereof I have been often 

 told, so very cold, that 'tis dangerous drinking 

 thereof in summer-time, it having proved of fatal 

 consequence to several. I never tried any thing 

 of what nature it is of 



There be many petrefying waters; and, indeed, 

 I believe, few of the waters but participate of a 

 petrefying quality, tho' there be few pebbles or 

 paving stones to be found in all the country. But 



I have found many 'sticks with crusty congela- 

 tions round them in the ruins of springs, and 

 stones figured like honey-combs, with many little 

 stars as it were shot in the holes. And nothing 

 IS more common than petrefy'd shells, unless you 

 would determine that they are parts of natural 

 rock shot in those fijiures, which, indeed, 1 rather 

 think; but thereof fierealter. Mr. Secretary »S/jen- 

 cer, has told rne of some waters participating 

 much of alome or vitriol towards Potomack. Up 

 beyond the falls of Rapahanack, I have heard of 

 poysonous waters. But these I only mention as 

 a hint to further enquiry of some others, for I can 

 say nothing of them myself. 



Of the Earth and Soil. 



When you make the capes of Virginia, you 

 may observe it low land, so that at some distance 

 the trees appear as if they grew in the water; and 

 as you approach nigher, to emerge thence. For 

 one hundred miles up into the country, there are 

 ie.w stones to be found, only in some places, rocks 

 of iron oar appear, which made me expect to have 

 found many waters turn purple with galls, but 

 never met with any. Providence has supplied the 

 common use of stones, by making the roads very 

 good: so that they ride their horses xvithout 

 shooing them ; which yet are more rarely beaten 

 on their feet, than ours are in England, the coun- 

 try and clime being dry, their hools are much 

 harder ; for I observed, that take a horse out of 

 the wet marshes, and swamps, as they there call 

 them, and ride him immediately, and he'll quickly 

 be tender-footed. In some places, for several 

 miles together, the earth is so intermix'd with oys- 

 ter-shells, that there may seem as many shells as 

 earth; and how deep they lie thus intermingled, 

 I think, is not yet known: for at broken banks 

 they discover themselves to be continued many 

 yards perpendicular. In several places these 

 shells are much closer, and being petrefied, seem 

 to make a vein of a rock. I have seen in several 

 places, veins of these rocky shells, three or four 

 yards thick, at the foot of a hdl. whose precipice 

 might be twenty yards perpendicular, whose deifj 

 I suppose, shot under the hill. Pieces of these 

 rocks broken off, lie there, which I suppose, may 

 weigh twenty or thirty tuns a piece, and are as 

 difficult to be broken as our free-stone. Of these 

 rocks of oyster-shells that are not so much petre- 

 fied, they burn and make all their lime ; whereof 

 they have that store, that no generation will con- 

 sume. Whether these were Ibrmerly oysters, 

 which lell by the subsiding seas, (as some suppose, 

 that all that tract of land, now high ground, was 

 once overflowed by the sea,) were since petrefied, 

 or truly stones, sui generis, I leave to the honoura- 

 ble society to determin. But when I consider the 

 constant and distinct shooting of several salts, na- 

 ture's curiosity, in every thing, so fttr exceeding 

 that of art, that the most iniienious, when referr'd 

 thereto, seem only endued with an apish fondness, 

 I cannot think any thing too difTicult or wonderful 

 for nature ; and, indeed, I do not apprehend, why 

 it may not be as leasible to suppose them to have 

 been rocks, at first shot into those figures, as to 

 conceive the sea to have amass'd such a vast 

 number of oyster-shells one upon another, and af- 

 terwards subsiding, should leave them covered 

 with such mountains of earth, under which they 

 should petrefie : But not to launch forth too far 



