NATURAL MODEL FOR ARTIFICIAL LAKES. 
-^HF 
sess appreciable weight : it therefore may be assumed that the vastness of its bulk, -when compared 
with its absolute weight, depends upon the extremely minute division of its atoms, occasioned by the 
power of some repulsive agent. Oxygen gas is a fraction heavier than atmospheric air ; and in the 
decomposition of water it also assumes the gaseous form, subject to a similar repulsive power. When 
the two gases, in the above proportions to form water, are blended together, they explode with vio- 
lence, on passing the slightest electric spark, and the equivalent quantity of pure water is reproduced. 
If we admit that these phenomena, connected with the extrication of an intense flash of light, are estab- 
lished as facts which cannot be disputed, then, with all deference to the high authority of Dr. Faraday, 
I venture to suggest that the volume of electricity, which develops the two elements of the grain of 
water, combines specifically with their bases ; one electricity with the base of hydrogen, and the other 
electricity with the base of oxygen, in equivalent proportions exactly as required to bring each to that 
condition of gaseous repulsion in which it invariably exists. 
If fogs and mists consist of watery particles kept, by a sovereign law of nature, in a state of repul- 
sion by a definite volume of positive electricity ; and again— if, in fact, as Quetelet tells us, his 
announcement comprises all that, up to the present time, we really know of atmospheric electricity, the 
electric condition of haze and fogs partially reveals the cause of one of those phenomena which fre- 
quently are observed in sultry weather — namely, an afternoon thunder-storm after a dense morniDg 
fog. It is well known, that if the mist begins to rise about nine or ten o'clock in the morning, under 
the influence of a powerful sun — breaks and disperses itself like a body of steam, its particles becoming 
more rare and attenuated, till at length they vanish into thin air — a serene and brilliant day will cer- 
tainly follow : thus it frequently happens in the harvest weather of August. If, on the other hand, 
the mist becomes condensed into cloudy masses about the mid-day hour, thunder approaches, and a 
storm usually follows before six o'clock, p.m. 
Electrical facts are certain : theories — even those which are suggested by the observations of M. 
Quetelet — must be received with the utmost caution ; yet we know enough, and are in possession of 
facts sufficient to invite our most serious attention to electric science, and to render us perfectly confi- 
dent that the grand ethereal solar element which we term electricity is (if not the prime) one of the 
agents of all the phenomena of vegetable life. 
« 
NATURAL MODEL FOB, ABTLFICIAL LAKES* 
)?F the improver will recur to the most beautiful small natural lake within his reach, he will 
A have a subject to study and an example to copy well worthy of imitation. If he examines 
minutely and carefully such a body of water, with all its accompaniments, he will find that it is not 
only delightfully wooded and overshadowed by a variety of vegetation of all heights, from the low 
sedge that grows on its margin to the tall tree that bends its branches over its limpid wave, but he 
will also perceive a striking peculiarity in its irregular outline. This, he will observe, is neither 
round, square, oblong, nor any modification of these regular figures, but full of bays and projections, 
sinuosities, and recesses of various forms and sizes, sometimes bold, reaching a considerable way out 
into the body of the lake ; at others, smaller and more varied in shape and connexion. In the 
height of the banks, too, he will probably observe considerable variety ; at some places the shore 
will steal gently and gradually away from the level of the water, while at others it will rise 
suddenly and abruptly in banks more or less steep, irregular, and rugged ; rocks and stones, covered 
with mosses, will here and there jut out from the banks, or lie along the margin of the water, and 
the whole scene will be full of interest from the variety, intricacy, and beauty of the various parts. 
If he will accurately note in his mind all these varied forms, their separate outlines, the way in 
which they blend into one another, and connect themselves together, and the effect which, surround- 
ing the water, they produce as a whole, he will have some tolerably correct idea of the way in which 
an artificial lake ought to be formed. Let him go still farther now in imagination, and suppose the 
banks of this natural lake, without being otherwise altered, entirely denuded of grass, shrubs, trees, 
and verdure of every description, remaining characterized only by their original form and outline. 
This will give him a more complete view of the method in which his labours must commence ; for, 
uncouth and apparently misshapen as those banks are, and must be when raw and unclothed, to 
exhibit all their variety and play of light and shadow when verdant and complete, so also must the 
original form of the banks and margin of the piece of artificial water — in order finally to assume the 
5) beautiful or picturesque — be made to assume outlines equally rough and harsh in their raw and 15 
^ incomplete state. ft 
cQ\] * From Downing's Landscape Gardening. \{fiv 
w r — =^ibr 
