Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-04-22
Wnter. ,he AlI.perrnaInn RluIa =.


Water penetrates into every thing save
meials. and even into some of these, espe.
cially iron and lead. Nearly all the earths,
flint, lime and clay, are pervaded by its in
fluencts All soils, even the hardest con-
tain water in abundance few having less
than one eleventh, some being nearly half
water. 1t penetrates every rock, till sand
stone becomes so full of il, that one or two
million gallons of water can be pumped
daily from single well while chalk is still
fuller of water The microscope has shown
that water is even contained 10 some of the
primary rocks, quartz, holding 1t IN such
Quantities that the cavities are large enough
to beteen by the naked eye, snd it is proba-
BILE that mica, felspar and quartz, though
first involved by heat have been dissolved
by water, and laid down in beds.
OF the human frame, water forms so large
a component part that the most thoroughly
smoke. dried old crone that ever ran the risk
of being burned as a witch, would shrink
very aterislly if the water were abstracted
from her withered frame. A gentleman of
comfortable dimensions, if submitted to dis
tillatioD, would be transformed into a re-
specially dressed mummy the famous Dam
iel Bsmbert under this process would have
dwipdied to the weight of small young
gentleman In Knickerbockers. A tun of
grass represents two hundred. weight ofhay,
radical moisture, sinks to a still smaller fig
ure /; while some plants aud fruits, such as the
watermelon, are almost entirely composed
of water.
And whether it is lancbed in the soft
mud of the volcano, spreading destruction
over the labors of man, or boiled in the
geyser; whether it tbunders down the cata.
ract, or stagnates in the torpid jungle; it is
the same inva liable mysterious agent, wear
;no dppp tho old nd hnildinU mn tho nagv .
refreshing the wofD-out soil with vitalizing
msttef, and changing the sandy waste or
barren heath into land smiling with
plenty. The great Mammoth Cave, of Ken
lucky, and the vast caverns of the Adels-
berg; The labyrinth of Gre e, and the wonders
of the Peak, are alike due to the action oi
water upon limestone. The vast beds of egg-
stone (ooite) were formed by y'some namele5s
shallow quiet sea rolling regular coating
of lime round myriads of small nuclei,
some tiDy shell or skeleton the beautiful
deposits in the hot springs of Iceland are
owing TO the silica in the water. Nature
has always plenty of the material on hand
the sea contains in soiution-besides as
much EPSON. salts as would physic all the
inhatitsnts Of the earth-50O, OOO, 900 tuns Of
flint.
81 thoroughly does water enter into all
the doiDgs OF this subiunary sphere, that we
find it ahke in the icy winds that sweep
over the Arctic regions, and in the hoi
simooo. Tie east WIND, which proverbially
dries up the skin, and makes horses coat
stare, contains its due proportion of moist
ure, Just as air does after rain; in fact, al
most Immediately after parting with its
water, the temperature of the atmosphere
arises, and part OF the water is reabsorbe1 /
But the air is not merely modified by the
water in it. Thus, while the shores of La
bra0or lie buried in ice and fog, the coast Of
England and Ireland, in the same latitude,
under the vitslizing warmth of the Gulf.
stream smiles in perennial yerdure.
Even coDgealed into ice, water is of such
incalculable service, that without it the ma.
chinery Of the globe must come to stand.
still. The mariner who beholds the huge
icebeTgs bearing down the Atlantic, anC
looming through the palpable darkness o.
midnight, or the traveller who surveys the
savage aud fantastic desolations of the Polar
realms, may wonder what purpose they can
serve. They are the checks Nature has
placed upon the over vibration of the pend
ulum; they are the hood-gates, the break
ing of every thing that now inhabits thu
earth.
II the movement of upheaval now goiu,
on at Cape North should extend 10 Spitz
bergen and the lands around the Pole
trfiiog process compared with the grea
happened-the accumulation of ice in the /;
regions would soon render the north o
Europe uninhA bitAble. Where the engine
driver now glides with the steady SIN 10Th
ness of planetary motion, the thunderinl
flight of the locomotive the ice-stream an
snow swollen cataract would alone meet tn
eye; where the ring Of the hammer an
whiTl Of the spindle tell of man's daily tot
WOnld be heard only the fall of the avalanch
aVH la nrfnAtnrr of D. Il,
short ears, and the Polar bear and walru
the whale and penguin would again be see
in the German Ocean and St.k George
Channel and the fertile fields Of Englan
would again lie buried beneath the clay
tiood and the glacial drift; and the 10 wei
hills would be covered with eternal snow
Or, were tito sink again by the proce.
which has borne down tracts, equally larg,
to the bottom of the ocean, leaving
scarcely aPpreciable inequality on the sur
ace OF the globe, man, with all his traditions
arts and sciences, would disappear from tn
scene, and his place would be filed BY som
of the huge forms which tell Of might
past in bnguage that can not be disputed
For a time, indeed, famed By the Coz
breezes from the Atlantic, the temperat
regions might be eBdurable by those VIII
can bear the ferceness Of tropical heat
But ere long this possibility would cease
nay, II this not very improbable chang
happened, the giant iguanod0n might reap
pear on the world, and the fish lizard agail
be the saBguinary tyraht Of the ocean AM
the estusry; again the Pterodactyle nigh
cleeEe ~ith It's dusky wings the dark anI
poisonous air Of the tree-bern groves; ant
the turtle might once more spawn her egg
where the walFus nov sleeps and the sea
bas driiied on the iee-h a" l9a % t.
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