101 
Ihis is shewn also by observing the progress of a thaw with snow on the 
ground, or an hoar-frost, which is dissolved on the surface of the ground, 
when it remains on the tiles, and on the tops of walls. 
The preservation of gooseberries in bottles buried deep in the earth is a 
familiar example of this fact. 
CONCLUSION FROM THESE EXPERIMENTS. 
Hence Dr. Hales concludes, that the earth parts with its heat with diffi¬ 
culty to the air, and will retain its natural temperature, which is between 40° 
and 50°, at a very small depth beneath the surface, even when the air is be¬ 
low the freezing point, which is an admirable contrivance of Nature for the 
preservation of her offspring. 
Secondly, with regard to the equal temperature of the warm dpringd 
found in many parts of the earth, the opinion that these arise from a subter¬ 
ranean fire did not escape the sagacious mind of the philosopher of the last 
century. 
“ Had the warmth of the Bath waters,” says Mayow, “ proceeded, as 
some have supposed, from an actual subterranean fire, this in all probability 
had been extinguished by the waters themselves/' and this phenomenon 
had long since ceased.” 
“ Hence it is more probable to suppose, that the superior temperature 
of these waters arises from a fermentation excited in the body of the earth 
itself.” 
* In Ovid the flood is brought in, after the battle of the giants, whieh is hyperbolic of the erup¬ 
tion of burning mountains, which had devasted the earth, and threatened heaven itself, as a means 
to quench these fires, and reduce this torn and confounded face of things into some better form and 
order. And that Jupiter might be vindicated from the charge of cruelty towards the creatures of his 
hands, the men of those times (the iron age) are represented as extremely wicked, and the preservation 
of Deucalion and Pyrrha proves sufficiently his regard for mortals, and his wish to reward virtue. 
Nunc mihi qua totum Nereus corcumsonat orbem 
Perdendum est mortale genus.-- 
Cuncta prius tentanda, sed immedicabile vulnus 
Ense recidendum est, ne pars sincera trahatur. 
2 C 
