120 JAMES CLERK MAXWELL. [CHAP. V. 



Sometimes I do not like him, because he pretends to give 

 information as to calculations of sorts, whereas he only tells 

 how it might be done if you were allowed an infinite time 

 to do it in, as well as patience. Of course he never stoops 

 to give a particular example or even class of them. He 

 tells lies about the way people make barometers, etc. 



I bathe regularly every day when dry, and try aquatic 

 experiments. 



I first made a survey of the pool, and took soundings 

 and marked rocky places well, as the water is so brown that 

 one cannot see one's knees (pure peat, not mud). People 

 are cutting peats now. So I have found a way of swim- 

 ming round the pool without knocking knees. The lads 1 

 are afraid of melting, except one. No one here would touch 

 water if they could help it, because there are two or three 

 eels in the pool, which are thought near as bad as adders. 



I took down the clay gun and made a centrifugal pump 

 of it ; also tried experiments on sound under water, which 

 is very distinct, and I can understand how fishes can be 

 stunned by knocking a stone. 



We sometimes get a rope, which I take hold of at one 

 end, and Bob Eraser the other, standing on the rock ; and 

 after a flood, when the water is up, there is sufficient current 

 to keep me up like a kite without striking at all. 



The thermometer ranged yesterday from 35 to 69. 



I have made regular figures of 14, 26, 32, 38, 62, and 

 102 sides of cardboard. 



Latest intelligence Electric Telegraph. This is going 

 so as to make a compass spin very much. I must go to 

 see my pig, as it is an hour and half since I left it ; so, sir, 

 am your afft. friend, JAMES CLERK MAXWELL. 



To THE SAME. 



Glenlair, 22d Sept. 1848. 



. . . When I waken I do so either at 5.45 or 9.15, but I 

 now prefer the early hour, as I take the most of my violent 

 exercise at that time, and thus am saddened doivn, so that I 



1 See above, p. 93. 



