340 ' FHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO J 7 66. 



found that it ought to have produced 6 tenths of an inch, and -jV of an inch 

 more ; he then dissolved the snow, and found that it yielded a quantity of water 

 in the bottom of the jug, 6 tenths of an inch deep as in the former experiment. 

 The difference of -^'-^ of an inch in the depth of the water, between the weight 

 and the melting of the snow, was probably owing to an exhalation from the jug, 

 while the snow was melting by the fire, for he observed a steam sometimes rising 

 from it. A greater or less degree of cold, or of wind, while the snow falls, and 

 its lying a longer or shorter time on the ground, will occasion a difference in the 

 weight, and in the quantity of water produced, from a certain number of cubic 

 feet, or inches, of snow ; but if he may trust to the above trials, which he en- 

 deavoured to perform with care, snow, newly fallen, with a moderate gale of 

 wind, freezing cold, which was the case of the snow he made the trials on, the 

 27th of March last, will produce a quantity of water equal to -^ part of its bulk; 

 or the earth, when covered with snow, 10 inches deep, will be moistened by it 

 when melted, or rivers and springs recruited, as much as if a quantity of rain 

 had fallen that had covered the surface of the earth to the depth of one inch. 



XXVIL Observations on the Country and Mines of Spain and Germany, with 



an Account of the Formation of the Emery Stone. By IViltiam Bowles, Esq, 



Director General of the Mines of Spain, p. '229. 



At the extremity of Old Castile, in Spain, is situated a territory called Mon- 

 tana, which is divided into two parts. The Low Montana is that chain of moun- 

 tains, which bounds the Cantabrian sea. The city Santander is its chief port, 

 whence you ascend southerly, 1 2 long leagues, a succession of high craggy 

 mountains, to the town of Reynosa in the upper Montana, which extent stretches 

 3 leagues more, and then you continually descend about 14 leagues to the city 

 of Burgos, the capital of Old Castile. Reynosa is in the centre of an open plain, 

 surrounded by a ridge of high mountains, at whose feet are low hills of pasture- 

 land. To the west of Reynosa, in an hour's walk, is the source of the great 

 river Ebro, which receives all the waters on that side, and conveys them into the 

 Mediterranean, 7 leagues below the city Tortosa. All the spring, rain and snow 

 waters, of the mountains to the north of Reynosa, run into the Bay of Biscay. 

 The waters, from the south chain of the mountains, are collected in the river 

 Pisverga, which runs into the river Duero, and from thence are carried to the 

 Atlantic ocean at Oporto. Hence we see, that the adjacent parts of Reynosa di- 

 vide the waters of the three seas, which lie north, east, and west. 



Eight leagues square of this upper Montana is the highest land in Spain; the 

 mountains rise in the atmosphere to the line of congelation ; snow is seen from 

 the window this 4th of August, while writing this letter. Some years ago there 

 used to fall so much snow, that the people were forced to dig lanes through it, to 



