142 SPRINGS, RIVERS, CANAtS, LAKES, 



The fount forsaking: whence the sparkling tide 

 Tastes in the day more frigid than at night. 



Upon this striking passage Mr. GOOD, from whose translation we 

 fjave copied, has the following note, which we also copy, as being 

 peculiarly apposite to the present occasion. 



'* Of the existence of this curious fountain there can be no doubt. 

 It is particularly described by Quintus Curtius, iv. 7. Pliny, ii. 103 ; 

 and Pomponius Mela, i. 8. It is also referred to by Siliu.s Italicus, 

 fci. 669, and by Ovid in the following distich : 



Medio tua, corniger Hammon ! 

 Unda die gelida est: ortuque, obituque, calescit. 



Thy stream, O tiom-crown'd Ammon! in the mixlst 

 Chills us at 110011, but warms at morn ami eve. 



** Tlie heat of this fountain was unquestionably supplied from 

 subterranean inflammable substances in a state of combustion. Its 

 alteration of cold in the day-time may have been produced, and es- 

 pecially in the summer season, by evaporation from the groves that 

 surrounded it", or by the subsidence of a regular hot tide, like the 

 pool of Bethesda, described by St. John, v 2 4. which seems to 

 have been possessed of powers in many respects similar. The fiomaii 

 fountain was, probably, like the Jewish, a hot spring with a title, 

 recurring once in e-cery twenty-four hours ; rtilh this only 

 difference, thai the tide of the latter returned about noon, 

 and that of the former at sun-set or midnight. Our ozzn 

 country has a great number of these extraordinary springs $ 

 but tlicy are in general so well. supplied n-ifh subterranean heat 

 as to suffer no intermission whatever. The Weeden well in the 

 celebrated peak of Derbyshire, has an undoubted dux and reflux of 

 its waters, but its tide is irregular, and it is not supplied with heat 

 from below. The most extraordinary hot springs we are acquainted 

 with are those at Geyser and Rykum, both in Iceland. Their 

 fieats return with their tides; but these tides, though irregular iu 

 their periods, recur so frequently as to prevent their waters from 

 ever becoming cold. That of the former returns tn or twelve 

 times in the course of tbe day; and swch is th.e extreme calidity aad 



