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Origin of Rivers. 
A. question has long existed among phi 
loSophers, and has never been settled by 
universal consent, whether the rivers de¬ 
pend solely for their supply upon the wa¬ 
ter which descends from the atmosphere, 
or whether there is a kind of circulation o 1 
water within the earth like that of blood in 
the animal economy, or that of winds in 
the atmosphere, by means of which per¬ 
ennial springs are constantly supplied, by 
some mechanical process in nature, from 
s ‘tlie fountains of the great deep." Riccio- 
lus affirms upon calculation, that the Vol¬ 
ga, or the St Lawrence alone discharges 
annually a greater quantity of water than 
falls in rain, snow, and dew, upon the whole 
surface of the globe. These and other i 
known rivers are said, upon a very mode-J 
rate calculation, to discharge more than j 
five ‘hundred times as roue (1 water into 
the sea as fails in rains, Sic. It would seem, 
therefore, that there must exist subterra¬ 
neous communications between the sea and 
the sources of fountains, rivers, and the 
larger springs by which these are suppli¬ 
ed; and this opinion is corroborated by the 
Known existence of charybdes which swal¬ 
low the sea for these purposes; and when 
these happen to be stopped, the largest ri¬ 
vers have been said to be dried up, and to 
have wholly ceased to run for a considera¬ 
ble time. It is stated in Rees's Cyclope¬ 
dia, that there are accounts in history of 
this having happened to the Thames, the 
Medway, and the Trent in England; the 
Elve, the Motala, and Gulspang, in Swe¬ 
den, and other rivers in other countries. 
On the contrary, if these charybdes hap¬ 
pened to be too open, fresh water springs 
depending upen them becamse salt. Pliny 
relates that this once happened in Caria, 
near Neptune's Temple. Various other 
instances have been stated by historians, 
ancient and modern. 
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