113 SPRINGS, RIVERS, CANALS, LAKES, 



Town, is ?5 6 . The spring at Stoney Hill is 71. These were ex- 

 atni'itHl IP Mr. Home. 



Mr. Wallen's house, at Cold Spring, stands the highest of any 

 in the island. By a measurement said to have been made by Mr. 

 M'Farlaue, it is reported to be 14OO yards above the level of the 

 sen. On the road to it, and about a mile below Mr. Wallen's 

 bouse, there is a spring that issues from the side of the hill, of the 

 temperature of 63. Cold Spring, which gives a name to the place, 

 is about 50 feet below the house, and the heat of it is 6lJ. The 

 thermometer in the shade at Mr. Wallen's house, for some days in 

 the month of April, ranged from 57 to 67. It may be remaiked, 

 that the higher the springs the colder the air; and as far as a con- 

 jecture can be formed from so few observations, they would ap- 

 pear not to differ much from the mean temperature of their respec- 

 tive places. 



It will not be out of place to add some observations made in 

 England, relative to the same subject. The wells in and about 

 London are either of no great depth, or are full of water, which 

 are both considerable objections to their giving a mean tempera- 

 ture. The want of depth will make them subject to the variations 

 of the seasons; and a large quantify of water, even in a deep well, 

 will take the temperature of the air more or less : for any change 

 of temperature communicated at the surface will, from the fluidity 

 of the water, be readily diffused through the whole. It is proba- 

 bly owing to this cause, that the wells in the neighbourhood of 

 Bright helm.stone vary from 50 to 52, for those were the highest 

 that had the most water in them. The observe ions were made in 

 summer. These wells are of various depths, from 15 to 150 feet. 

 That which is always found the coldest is not more than 22 feet 

 deep ; its heat was never greater than $6. It is near the beach, 

 and is a tide well, that is, the water in it rises and falls, and 

 jet does not correspond exactly with the tides, but follows them 

 with an interval of about three hours. At the lowest there is not 

 more- than a foot of water in it ; and it may be considered as a 

 subterraneous spring running through the bottom of the well. 

 There are in fact numerous springs that break out on the saml, a 

 few feet above the low-water mark, which are doubtless the same 

 that supply the wells. As we are not acquainted with any cause 

 that produces cold in the bowels of the earth, we must necessarily, 



