.96 SPRINGS, RIVERS, CANALS, LAKES, 



vessel were agitated briskly j and the air which entered the water, 

 found its way into the inverted glass, the upper part of which it 

 occupied. The water of the tub was agitated by the motion of a 

 whisk, or a bundle of slender twigs ; it was sometimes taken up in 

 a pitcher, and returned into the vessel quickly, from the height of 

 a foot or more ; both methods proved successful, but the former 

 appeared to introduce air into the glass with more expedition than 

 the latter did ; the difference here mentioned, may however depend 

 entirely upon management and accidental circumstances. The expe- 

 riment which I have now related, shews the foregoing objection to 

 be of no moment; consequently the present theory of irregular 

 reciprocation may be pronounced to stand upon a safe foundation, 

 and unexceptionable principles. 



The observations which have been made on Mr. Swainston's acci- 

 dental discovery, render an elaborate inquiry into the constitution 

 of Giggleswick well unnecessary. Nature may be easily supposed 

 to have produced an apparatus in the side of the hill, possessing the 

 mechanical properties of the reciprocating tub, and all the pheno- 

 mena will follow, which are so remarkable in this fountain. Let us 

 imagine a reservoir to be concealed from view under the rocks, 

 into which the stream of a subterranean brook falls, and beats part 

 of its contents into foam by agitation. Let this cavity be connected 

 with the external or visible basin ; by a narrow serpentine chink 

 concealed in the interposing strata; and the reader must perceive, 

 without farther explanation, that this conduit will perform the part 

 of the inverted siphon already described, and exhibit the operations, 

 as well as the irregularities of the fountain in question. The same 

 internal structure may he supposed to exist in Lay Well, near Torbay: 

 but something is required, in addition to this simple apparatus, to 

 account for the casual reciprocation of Weeding Well, in Derby- 

 shire. It is not a difficult task to accommodate the theory to the 

 description of this spring ; but when we consider how imperfect 

 such descriptions are commonly found to be, it appears more 

 adviseable to pass over this fountain in silence ; until some accurate 

 observer shall present the public with a correct and minute history 

 of its operations. , 



[Nicholson's Journal, Vol. 35, No, 163.] 



of 



