Chap. 29.] QUALITIES OF WATER. 
491 
are constructed at the bottom, but without cement,^^ in order 
that the springs may not be intercepted. 
Some waters, the sources of which do not lie on elevated 
ground, are coldest at the beginning of spring, being main- 
tained by the winter rains in fact. Others, again, are coldest at 
the rising of the Dog-star — peculiarities, both of them, to be 
witnessed at Pella in Macedonia ; for in front of that city there 
is a marsh-spring, which at the beginning of summer is cold, 
while in the more elevated parts of the city the water is ice- 
cold^® in the hottest days of summer. The same is the case, 
too, at Chios, the water-supply of the harbour and of the 
city occupying the same relative positions. At Athens, the 
water of the Eountain Enneacrunos^^ is colder in a cloudy 
summer than the well there in the garden of Jupiter ; while 
on the other hand, this last is ice-cold during the drought of a 
hot summer. For the most part, however, wells are coldest 
about the rising of Arcturus.^^ 
(4.) The water-supply of wells never fails in summer, but 
in all cases it falls low during four days at the rising of the 
constellation above-mentioned. Throughout the whole winter, 
on the other hand, many wells entirely fail ; as in the neigh- 
bourhood of Olynthus, for example, where the water returns 
in the early days of spring. In Sicily too, in the vicinity of 
•Messana and Mylse, the springs are entirely dry throughout 
the winter, while in summer they overflow and form quite a 
river. At Apollonia in Pontus there is to be seen, near the 
sea- shore, a fountain which overflows in summer only, and 
mostly about the rising of the Dog- star ; should the summer, 
however, not be so hot as usual, its water is less abundant. 
Certain soils become drier in consequence of rain, that in the 
territory of Narnia for example : a fact which M. Cicero has 
mentioned in his Admiranda," with a statement that drought 
is there productive of mud, and rain of dust.^^ 
CHAP. 29. THE QUALITIES OF WATEE AT THE LIFFERE^^T SEASONS 
OF THE TEAK. 
Every kind of water is freshest in winter, not so fresh in 
^"^ Arenatum." Properly a mortar, which consisted of one part lime . 
and two parts sand. a ii,iget." 
23 See B. iv. c. 11. At Bisley, in Surrey, there is a spring, Auhrey says, 
that is cold in summer and warm in winter. '^^ See B. xviii. c. 7. 
The sandy soil heing dried in hot weather into masses of mud or clay, 
which become loosened when rain falls. 
