210 HYDROGRAPHY. 



CHAPTER IX. 



Hi/drographi/. 



jjnrines-Hot Springs-Wells-Lakes-Rivers-The Ganges-Length 

 apnuga f jjcf^gg^vgrs of India— Cataracts. 



The following observations on Springs, Lakes, Rivers, 

 and Cataracts are to be considered merely as an addition to 

 what is contained in the general and geographical depart- 

 ments of these volumes of the Family Library. 



^j,,j„^5._Although India, like other great tracts of coun- 

 try, contains many springs, these have hitherto =^ttracted but 

 little attention. The temperature of but few of them is 

 known; their magnitudes and geognostical situations are 

 scarcely ever mentioned; and their chyimcal composition, 

 excepting in a very few instances, has been neglected. 1 he 

 most important feature in the natural history of commm or 

 perenmal springs,-namely, their temperature,-is rarely 

 noticed, although a knowledge of this fact is i»uf ^f ^^^ "°' 

 only of the mean temperature of the climate, but also of the 

 elevations of the land above the level of the sea ; and our 

 information in regard to their chymical nature is equally 



Salt 'springs, although met with in saline soils, in some 

 instances probably connected with a salt formation, might 

 be shown to exhibit interesting relations ; yet they are not 

 so curious in a general view as the hot sprmgs in different 

 parts of India, concerning which the following details are 

 worthy of being communicated to our readers. 



Hot Springs.— The appearance of hot springs in a country 

 never fails to interest the geologist, because, independent y 

 of high temperature and other properties, their mtunate 

 connexion with igneous rocks and distorted conditions of the 

 strata, shows not only that a subterranean heat still exists, 

 to which they owe in some degree their elevated temperature, 

 but also that they mny have burst forth during some early 

 subterranean igneous action. 



