CLOUDS AND RIVERS, ICE AND GLACIERS. 123 



supplied by tlie warmer and lighter water from the 

 deeper portions of the lake. 



317. It was pointed out to me that without the law 

 i eferred to this process of circulation would go on until 

 the whole water of the lake had been lowered to the 

 freezing temperature. Congelation would then begin, 

 and would continue as long as any water remained to be 

 solidified. One consequence of this would be to destroy 

 every living thing contained in the lake. Other calamities 

 were added, all of which were said to be prevented by 

 the perfectly exceptional arrangement, that after a cer- 

 tain time the colder water becomes the lighter, floats 

 on the surface of the lake, is there congealed, thus 

 throwing a protecting roof over the life below. 



318. Count Rumford, one of the most solid of scientific 

 men, writes in the following strain about this question : 

 — ' It does not appear to me that there is anything 

 which human sagacity can fathom, within the wide- 

 extended bounds of the visible creation, which affords a 

 more striking or more palpable proof of the wisdom of 

 the Creator, and of the special care He has taken in the 

 general arrangement of the universe, to preserve animal 

 life, than this wonderful contrivance. 



319. ' Let me beg the attention of my readers while 1 

 endeavour to investigate this most interesting subject: 

 and let me at the same time' bespeak his candour and 

 indulgence. I feel the danger to which a mortal ex- 

 poses himself who has the temerity to explain the designs 



10 



