146 
HOT SPRINGS. 
At intervals we have springs of superior and un¬ 
varied temperature, and which from their exposed 
surfaces in summer being cooler than our skins when 
applied, and in winter being never frozen and never 
so cold as we expect to find water on applying the 
skin to it at that season, have acquired the name of 
“ hot and cold springs ,” but the surface is not the 
part to judge by with respect to their temperatures, 
for by the natural process, their superior heat is soon 
parted with to the air, and in favorable states of the 
atmosphere, as in clear, frosty, moonlight nights, if 
we look steadily against the stream proceeding 
from one of these fountains, or over a well of such 
water, w y e see evidence that the heat of the fluid as 
it escaped from the ground must have been pretty 
great, for there is a continued emission of very 
subtle steam, quickly borne off into the dense air 
and re-deposited. Some of these springs are in evi¬ 
dent connexion with rivers, and to have attained 
their elevated temperature, must have descended 
through some passages of the river-bed to a great 
depth of the earth before reappearing at the surface. 
One near my residence rises and falls with the river 
close to which it is, and pours forth muddy water 
at the time of our summer floods. Very often how¬ 
ever in rainy periods this spring yields but little, 
shewing, that its source is far up beyond the reach 
of the immediate maritime climate of the South 
Hams. Fice’s well on the moor is a spring of the 
above named kind. 
With respect to lakes , those of which the South 
ofDevon boasts are but few, and very inconsiderable 
in dimensions. In the forest of Dartmoor the 
streams occasionally expand in width and consti¬ 
tute shallow sedgy pools, hardly deserving the 
epithet of lakes ; certain spots also where springs 
originate, give place to expanses of water which 
