APPENDIX 



497 



Probably most of the water issues at the coast between the tide- 

 marks, and it is here that women living far from a well often wash 

 their linen. 



The seaward soakage of the underground waters is a frequent 

 phenomenon around the shores of lofty volcanic islands, or of high 

 volcanoes rising like that of Etna near the sea. Often the water 

 gathers in subterranean streams which emerge at the coast and in 

 the depths beyond, as I have described in the case of Hawaii and 

 Etna in the first volume of my Observations of a Naturalist in the 

 Pacific (p. 38). In Pico, as above observed, it displays itself chiefly 

 in the oozing of fresh- water between the tide-levels on the beaches. 



At times the seaward soakage of underground waters gives rise to 

 a number of subterranean streams of fresh-water that well up in the 

 sea off the coasts of large islands. Mr. Samler Brown in his Guide 

 to Madeira and the Canary Islands (1905, e, 22; i, 2) refers to the 

 streams of fresh-water that rise up in the sea near the coasts of those 

 islands. In La Palma, for instance, much of the rainfall on the 

 wooded slopes of the mountains " niters through into the sea at 

 short distances from the coast-line." My readers will recall Hum- 

 boldt's reference to the occurrence, a few miles off the Gulf of Xagua 

 on the south coast of Cuba, of very extensive fresh-water springs, 

 from which ships can water (Lady Sabine's translation of Ansichten 

 der Natur, I., 161). But submarine springs may exist along con- 

 tinental coasts, even where there is no great elevation. Thus Dr. 

 Scharff in his book on The Origin of Life in America (1911, p. 169) 

 quotes Prof. Shaler to the effect that along the coasts of Florida 

 there arise from beneath the sea a number of submarine springs. 



But to return to the subject of the coast wells of Pico, it may be 

 observed that the water is always a little brackish. As with those 

 of San Mattheus, Magdalena, Caes-o-Pico, Praynha do Norte, and other 

 places at the sea-border, the wells have sometimes to be sunk to a 

 depth of fifteen to twenty feet, the level of the water being that of 

 the sea. But their water is in summer much cooler than that of the 

 sea. At 5 p.m. on July 28, when the temperature of the well-water 

 at Praynha do Norte was 60° Fahr., that of the sea was 72-5°. Per- 

 manent springs, as I have said, are only to be found off the great 

 mountain, and they are few in number. However, the coast village 

 of Santo Amaro is supplied with water by a spring which issues on 

 the mountain slopes about 2000 feet above the sea, its temperature 

 at 3 p.m. on August 3 being 54° Fahr., or about ten degrees cooler 

 than the mean temperature of the air in the shade at that altitude. 



A similar spring is said to exist far up the mountain-side behind 

 Caes-o-Pico; but it is not utilised by the villagers. At the head of 

 a gully, some 500 or 600 feet above this place, there is a water- 

 source which has been protected by masonry; but it seems to be 

 only used for washing clothes. Here the water is derived from the 

 drippings of cliff-faces on either side, the line of underground soakage 

 being cut across by the gully, a circumstance which shows that in 

 this eastern part of the island there is a large amount of fresh-water 

 available. But lack of funds is the great obstacle, though a little 

 enterprise, like that displayed by the inhabitants of Santo Amaro, 



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