SPRINGS. 



259 





CHAPTER V. 



SPRINGS. 



ATER, essential to the existence of man and 

 the fertility of the soil, occurs in each of 

 the physical conditions which bodies are 

 capable of assuming the gaseous, solid, 

 and liquid states. In the form of vapour, 

 sustained in the atmosphere, it will be treated of in 

 another section. In the solid condition, one of its 

 aspects has been previously referred to that of the 

 glaciers of high mountain regions ; and in the lowland 

 districts of the temperate zones, water annually as- 

 sumes a solid form, a mantle of snow lying upon the 

 ground in winter, and a coating of ice upon the pools 

 and rivers. Upon high elevations, also, even within 

 the tropics, these phenomena are perpetual ; and, upon the level surface pf circumpolar 

 countries, snow and ice are constant features of the landscape. In a liquid state, the 

 continental waters have the character of springs, rivers, or lakes, which vary greatly 

 in their external appearance, and in the chemical composition of the fluid. The oceanic 

 waters likewise display these characters ; for we may regard the broad expanse of dif- 

 ferent seas as vast lakes, while the numerous, strong, and permanent currents that 

 occur are the rivers of the deep ; and in various places it is certain that jets of fresh-water 

 rise from the bottom of the ocean, which materially lessen its saltness in their neighbour- 

 hood. In the Gulf of Spezzia, a branch of the Gulf of Genoa- one of the finest har- 

 bours in the world, and of exquisite beauty there is a powerful jet of fresh water rising 

 in a liquid column from the bed of the sea ; and on the south coast of Cuba, at a consider- 

 able distance from the shore, there are fresh-water jets of such force, that boats cannot 

 approach them without hazard. The general division of the waters of the globe is into 

 salt, mineral, and fresh water. The ocean is the grand example of the former ; but there 

 are many continental specimens of saline springs and lakes, which proceed from combina- 

 tion with rock-salt or sulphate of magnesia. The mineral waters arise from sulphur, 

 arseniates, or other metallic substances, derived from the circumjacent earth, held in solu- 

 tion. For the most part, however, the continental waters are fresh, or somewhat similar 

 to distilled water, whether resulting from rain, or the melting of snow and ice, and con- 

 stituting either springs, rivers, or lakes. 



Springs, whether gushing rapidly from rocky clefts, or gently oozing out of banks of 

 earth, are interesting objects in the landscape, from the general purity of their waters, 

 the frequent seclusion of their situations, their murmuring flow, and the green enamel of 

 mosses and flowering plants to which the refreshing virtues of their streams give birth. 

 There are not a few springs whose history may be traced back thousands of years, and 

 which have acquired celebrity from their association with events and personages of a far 

 remote antiquity. Who has not heard of the fountain of Arethusa, with its dark water, 

 to which the hero of the Odyssey was directed by the goddess, upon returning to his 

 native Ithaca? 



" Go, first the master of thy herds to find, 

 At the Coracian rock, 

 Where Arethusa's sable water glides." 



