Origin of Springs. 32 1 



the Ocean, being fpecifically heavier, nmft immediate- 

 ly have begun to defcend through feme of the cracks, 

 and the water of the Abyfs to afcend through others. 

 Nor could the procefs have ceafed, until it had produ- 

 ced an equilibrium of preflure. If this rotation in the 

 waters of our Great Globe is not yet over, it will ac- 

 count, in a manner which Hallly never dreamed of, 

 for whirlpools, edies, and waterfpouts. 



The third m.ode contrived for the afcent of the wa- 

 ter of the Abyfs is the preffure of the Ocean. This 

 PrefTure is thus explained. — A crack or fiflure paffes 

 downward, from the orifice of every fpring, through 

 the Cruft, to the furface of the Abyfs, which is fuppo- 

 fed to be frelh. If water is poured into one arm of a 

 bended tube, and oil into the other ; the level of the 

 oil, as being the lighter fluid, will remain higher than 

 that of the water. The whole cavity of the Ocean 

 may be coniidered as one arm of fuch a tube ; a given 

 crack or fiffure, the other ; and the Abyfs, the con- 

 neflion between them. The brine of the Ocean, pref- 

 fing upon the lighter fluid of the Abyfs, will force it 

 up through the fiflure, to a greater height than its own 

 level, and thus will form a fpring. 



On this fcheme, the Ocean mufl; be conneBed with 

 the Abyfs ; for, if it is not^ it cannot prefs upon it. If 

 it is conneded with it, then I think it has been prov- 

 ed, that the waters of the latter muft be fait. If they 

 are fait, the preflure of the Ocean cannot raife them 

 above its own level ; for, if water alone is poured into 

 a bended tube, one arm of which is a hundred or a 

 thoufand times as large as the other, ftill the furface of 

 the fluid in both will have the fame horizontal level. 



But if this preflure would raife the waters of the A. 

 byfs to a fufficient height ; ftill, it would not make 

 them frefli. The cracks or fiflures are mere tubes of a 

 palpable diameter ; and to freflien brine, merely by 

 pafling it through a tube, is a harder problem than a 

 difcreet Chemift would attempt to folve. 



The manner in which fprings ifiTue from the ground, 



