No. 244.] 185 



lime, and a dry powder results, which contains the water consolida-' 

 ted, and is called chemically hydrate — all water contains air, which 

 is shown by the fact that fish live in it — if a small pond containing 

 fish be thoroughly frozen over with thick ice the fish will die ; per- 

 sons have denied this fact. I have proved it on my farm. I have 

 constructed eight artificial fish ponds, in which I have a vast variety 

 of fish, and have on several occasions lost them when the ponds have 

 been frozen. I am now obliged to have holes made in them daily to 

 admit the air. Place water under a receiver of an air pump and ex- 

 haust it, you will then see the air rushing out of the water in thou- 

 sands of bubbles — the air may be expelled by boiling, likewise, — by 

 calculation it has been found that 100 cubical inches of spring water 

 afforded two cubical inches of air, which consists of ten per cent, of 

 carbonic acid, and the balance atmospheric air, that is oxygen and ni- 

 trogen. Rain water contains 35 per cent, of air, and 1 per cent of 

 carbonic acid gas, fresh snow water has no air. Water by nature is 

 never perfectly pure, being a powerful solvent it soon becomes con- 

 taminated with any unclean substance it may come in contact with. 

 The only way to obtain comparatively pure water is to get snow in 

 some field remote from the habitation of man and melt it. The prin- 

 cipal reason why water presents such different qualities, in different 

 districts, is that all earths contain in different quantities certain ad- 

 ventitious substances of which the water being a great solvent imme- 

 diately imbibes and imparts to the taste. It is a singular fact that even 

 by distillation you can effect no change in water, you can only separ- 

 ate it from its impurities, it becomes colorless, transparent, and void 

 of taste, and will rapidly dissolve soap, and will last an indefinite 

 length of time pure if sealed up in a bottle, the fresh taste usually 

 perceptible in spring water, is caused by a small quantity of carbonic 

 acid gas always present. 



The purest water next to the distilled, is rain water, which is form- 

 ed by evaporation from the land and sea, the sun by his heat induces 

 this vapor to rise — it at once ascends into the upper regions, where 

 by the cold it becomes condensed in the form of mist, which we see 

 as clouds, as long as the temperature remains agreeable they float 

 about in the air, until they come in contact with electricity, or change- 

 able currents of cold wind by which they are condensed into almost 

 perceptible drops, which unite one with another, and they descend to 

 the earth's surface in the form of rain ; in its passage .through the air 

 it imbibes carbonic acid gas and ammonia, both of which it yields to 



