374 Mr. Wepewoon’s Methad of connecting 
alfo by experiment. I therefore pounded. foun ice,, and laid it 
in a conical heap on a plate; and having at hand | fome. water, 
coloured with cochineal, I poured. it gently into the plate, ate 
fome diftance from.the:heap:: .as foon as it came in contact with © 
the ice, it rofe haftily up to the top; and on. lifting up. the : 
lump, I found that it held the water, fo taken up,: as a fponge 
does, and did not drop any part of it till the heat of my hand, 
as I f{uppofe, began to liquefy the mats. On further trials I | 
found, that in pounded ice prefled into a conical heap, the 



coloured water rofe, in the fpace of three minutes, to the 
height of two inches anda half; and by weighing the water 
employed, and what remained upon the plate unablorbed,, it 
appeared, that. four ounces of ice had thus taken up, and re- 
tained, one ounce, of water. 
To further afcertain this abforbing power, in different cir-— 
cumtftances, more analogous to thofe of the procefs itfelf, I 
prefled fix ounces.of pounded ice pretty hard into the funnel, 
having firft introduced a wooden core in order to leavea proper 
cavity in the middle: then, taking out the core, and pouring — 
an ounce of water upon the ice, I left the whole for half an 
hour; at the end cf which time the quantity that ran oif was 
only 12 pennyweights and 4 grains, fo that the ice had retained 
7 pennyweights aud 20 grains, which is nearly one-twelfth of 
itsown weight, and two-fifths of the weight of the water. 
‘Thefe previous trials determined me, inftead of ufing pounded 
icc, to fill a proper vefiel with a folid mafs of ice, ke means of 
a freezing mixture, as the froft was now gone, and then expofe 
2t to the atmofphere till the furface began to liquefy. The ap= 
paratus I fitted up for this purpofe was made of earthen ware 
well glazed, and is reprefented in fig. 6, (tab. XV.). 
A, is 
