n '^" s die soundness of (he plan of accounting 
1)1 d ,e origin of rivers, bv supposing that the 
^’orld i s bored full of holes, and that, the water 
,s A)1 ’ c ed through by the world’s turning round, 
I w( pretend not to’be competent judges.--It 
j would seem, however, that unless there is some 
| mode of getting the water back again, the origi- 
| ilu * quantity must, first or last, be exhausted, and 
I die streams become dry. 
[ After all, there must be something inside be¬ 
side butter and buttermilk, or else there would 
not be so manv earthquakes. 
From the JVVrt* York Mercantile. Jldt'ertiscr. 
Reflections and Experiments on central for¬ 
ces. And on tile constitution of the globe we 
inhabit. 
COPT OF A LETTER TO I)U. MrTCIIELL. 
Le Hey, Genesee County, Jd. Y. July 22, 1819. 
Sir—Although a stranger, I shall make no. a- 
pology for addressing you, on so interesting a 
subject to all scientific men. Accident brought 
me to reflect upon the formation of the earth. 
Taking it for granted, that this earth has been 
of a consistence that would take shape by motion, 
and from what lias been discovered, there are 
strong arguments in its favor, what would be its 
internal structure? I have observed in a com¬ 
mon barrel churn, that a quick regular motion, 
would throw the cream upon the sides of the 
churn, without any agitation, leaving none at the 
ends, and 1 had observed, that & regular motion 
given to a grindstone, that was hung perfectly 
true, would retain water upon the top of the 
stone, without throwing it off; I considered, that 
the laws of nature and of motion must be uni¬ 
form. It occurred to me that motion must pro¬ 
duce the same effects on this earth that we see 
it have on smaller bodies. These considerations 
induced me to make a machine to demonstrate 
this as far as I possibly could. I accordingly 
prepared an artificial globe, from a pine log, 
about nine feet in circumference, as near the 1 
known shape of tins earth as possible, open at 
the poles, # the edneuvity of the inside, answera¬ 
ble to the convexity of the outside, the apuvture 
at the poles answerable to about 30 degrees of 
the earth. I then fixed it bn pivo.s, with ma¬ 
chinery to give it a very qmck motion. 1 then 
turned water in the inside of the ba*i, and put it 
n motion, and the event was as I had anticipated; 
die water spread itself smooth upon it, in a 
j smooth even surface, without any attempts to-fly 
i ‘df. I then perforated the hall i'll a number of 
ilaccs; it created as many most beautiful springs 
f water upon the outside of the ball, which sat- 
dlictorily-accouut.s to me for the origin of springs 
| .nd of course ot risers, and it will press the w\i- 
! er through the pores of the wood sufficiently Lo 
! noisten the whole outside surface. 
