3!}2 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO I698. 



oil be poured in, so as to fill the vessel almost brim-full, which must have a 

 cover pierced with as many holes as there are designed to be wicks. When the 

 vessel is thus filled and the wicks are lighted, if water fall in by drops at the 

 pipe, it will keep the oil always at the same height, or very near it, the weight 

 of water to that of oil being nearly as 20-^ to \Q, which in 2 or 3 inches will 

 make no considerable difference. If the water runs faster than the oil wastes, 

 it will only run over at the top of the pipe, what does not run over will come 

 under the oil, and keep it to the same height. 



On an Exlraordinary Eruption of Water. Bij R. P. Vicar of Kildwich in 



Yorkshire. N'' 245, p. 382. 



This most extraordinary eruption happened in June 1686, by which the 

 towns of Kettlewell and Starbotton, in Craven, Yorkshire, have been nearly 

 destroyed. The towns are situate under a great hill on the east and west : the 

 country is very mountainous and rocky. The descent of the rain was after a 

 thunder clap, and continued about an hour and half, with extraordinary violence, 

 and by several eye-witnesses, the rock on the east side opened visibly, and water 

 was seen ejected thence into the air, the height of a church steeple; so that 

 the current of water came down the hill into the towns as in one entire body, 

 and with a force as if it would have drowned all the inhabitants. Several 

 houses were quite demolished, and not a stone left; others gravelled up to the 

 chamber-windows ; some inhabitants were driven from their habitations, the 

 current of the water running through them ; mighty rocks descended from the 

 mountains into the valley, and there remain immoveable; many meadows were 

 covered with sand and stones, that the worth of the soil will not recover them. 

 Household goods were carried away and lost; besides much cattle. The whole 

 loss was reputed to be many thousand pounds. 



Experiments about Freezing. By Mr. Desmasters. Communicated by Dr. 

 miliam Musgrave. N° 245, p. 384. 



A tube of -^ of an inch diameter being filled with water to the height of two 

 inches, and set to freeze in a mixture of snow and salt ; the water, when per- 

 fectly frozen, appeared -,v of an incli above the mark it stood at before freezing. 

 Another tube, of almost an inch diameter, being filled with water to the height 

 of 6 inches, and set to freeze, as before, rose I- of an inch above the mark. It 

 was observable, that when the water thus set in snow and salt began to freeze, 

 a great many small bubbles continually rose from the bottom. 



