NATURAL HISTORYof/l/O/J WAY. ji 



inclined to believe that this .bluenefs is no further real, than as the 

 eye is apt to reprefent to itfelf the air, or any object at a great, 

 diftance, of that colour. Peyrere, in the place before cited, affirms* 

 that the ice in the north-fea is blue, and therefore by the an- 

 cients termed Cerulea Glacies. The mow, which on the fummits 

 of the mountains gradually hardens into ice, is of this colour, 

 and therefore commonly called Blaabreen. 



S E C T. VI. 



Altho' the fea- waters of Norway be much falter than thofe of its foftnefc 

 the Baltic, where the fea is refremed by abundance of rivers 

 runing into it, yet it has not the faltnefs of that in warmer coun- 

 tries, efpecially under the torrid zone. And this is no more than Lowthorp. 

 natural ; for where the vehement heat of the fun occaiions a more u. p. 297. 

 copious evaporation and exhalation, as in the falt-pans, there 

 the faline particles in the remaining water become the more clofely 

 united, and confequently the faltnefs of it more pungent ; for 

 that the fun itfelf mould convey in its fcorching rays innumerable 

 atoms of fait to the fea, and confequently moft there, where it 

 ftrikes the greater!: heat, is contrary to all experience, altho' the 

 long iince rejected principle of Arirfotle * is again difcufled and 

 efpoufed by that very ingenious and diligent naturalift in Sweden, in the above- 

 Mr. Urban Hierne. It feems of more importance here to enquire, work, P . 8 3 . 

 why the faltnefs of the fea-water, here decreafing towards the 

 north, increafes at fonie diftance higher towards the north-pole, 

 fo that the water, no further than Iceland, is falter than the water 

 on our Norway coafts, according to M. Anderfon's remark in his 

 Defcription of Iceland ? The caufe is plainly this, that a very in- 

 tenfe cold, fublimates by evaporations greater quantities of the fu- 

 perflcial and frefheft fea-water, and partly diflipates them by 

 froft. Thus here the cold has, tho' in a lefs degree, almoft the 

 fame effedt as the heat in hot countries ; but this effect it cannot 

 produce on the weft-coaft of Norway, where, for the moft part 

 we have damp weather, and know very little of the clear cold 



* Je dirai ici en parTant, que c'eft un erreur d'affurer avec Ariftote, que la falure 

 tie la mer depend de ce que les eaux font brulees par les rayons du lbleil, car l'on 

 n'a jamais experimente que la chaleur de cet aftre, ou meme celle de la flamme aic 

 converti de 1'eau douce en de l'eau falee. Rohault Phyfique, T, 11. p. in. cap. iv. 

 Se6b. 34. 



Part I. U of 



