OF WATER; AS EVIDENCE OF DESIGN IN NATURE. 245 
volumes of ice melt into only two volumes of water* at 32° F. 
The water has, therefore, expanded (or become less dense) 
between these two definite points of temperature. This is a 
very remarkable and important fact; and we shall best under- 
stand its importance by considering what would have been the 
physical results had what we may eall “the normal law of 
contraction of volume ” been continuous down to 32° F. 
(a) We may consider the results as regards rivers and lakes 
and other large areas where the annual mean temperature of 
the air is below 32° F., such as the lands north of the Arctic 
Circle—latitude 66°33° N.—especially those at some elevation 
above the border of the ocean. North of the Arctic Circle the 
rainfall, instead of flowing off the land into the ocean as rivers, 
would have been permanent ice-streams ; while the lakes would 
have been converted into solid masses of ice; because the ice 
once formed would have remained as such, accumulating on the 
bed of the valley without opportunity of melting. As this 
process must have been in operation throughout long ages of 
time it is impossible to imagine what would have been the 
condition of these regions had ice as it formed at the surface 
subsided to the bottom. 
(b) Now extending our purview to the adjoining oceanic 
regions, 1s 1b not clear that the effects would have been similar 
in “kind, though vastly greater in result? The ice as it froze on 
the surface, being by hypothesis heavier than the underlying 
water, would have subsided, and this process having proceeded 
throughout long ayes of time must have inevitably ‘resulted in 
converting what i is now oceanic water into solid ice. Can we 
conceive anything more lamentable than a solid Arctic Ocean ? 
Only where the influence of the Gulf Stream extends, warming 
the surface waters, and mollifying the climate so that the 
surface does not freeze throughout the year, would the present 
conditions have been permanent. 
(2) We now come to consider the second abnormal, or 
exceptionable, condition under which water exists, namely, 
INCOMPRESSIBILITY and its effects in the arrangement of the 
Cosmos. Water is incompressible ;_ and perhaps it is the only 
object in nature that is so. Various experiments have been 
tried in order to compress this liquid without success, and just 
because it is a liquid. On the other hand, solids are compres- 
sible; the contrast being due to the difference in arrangement 
* Daniel, Principles of Physics, 3rd edit. (1895). 
