Experiments on Cold. ' ^93 
it is not improbable, had the prefent experiment been tried 
with more precaution and addrels, that the refuit would have 
been {till more remarkable. , There was employed only about a 
pint of alcohol, but the proportion of fnow was not then 
attended to, and the thaw coming foon afterwards prevented 
a repetition of the experiment. 
I am, &c. ' 
P O S T S C R I P t; 
I beg leave to add, that the water mentioned as produced 
from the fuperficial fnow has been examined by feveral chy- 
mical trials, with a view of difcovering if it differed in any 
refpefl from the water obtained from {now gathered at 
confiderable depths, and near the ground. Had the 
atmofphere, when the thermometers pointed fo low, been 
difpofed to furnifh any faline principle, the union of fuch an 
ingredient with the fnow would have tended to produce an 
excefs-of cold at the furface, fimilar to what was then ob- 
ferved. Or if the fnow at thefe low temperatures had acquired 
any remarkable power of dephlogifticating the air in contadt 
with it, a cooling procefs at and near the confines of the fnow 
and air might thereby have been maintained. In either of 
thefe cafes, fome very fenfible Indications of a faline or of a * 
phlogiftic principle might be expected on the water given by 
the 
