CANTO III.
Clouds consist of aqueous spheres, which do not easily unite, like globules of quicksilver, as may be seen in riding through water. Owing to electricity. Snow. Hailstones rounded by attrition and dissolution of their angles. Not from frozen drops of water 15
Dew on points and edges of grass, or hangs over cabbage-leaves, needle floats on water 18
Mists over rivers and on mountains. Halo round the moon. Shadow of a church-steeple upon a mist. Dry mist, or want of transparency of the air, a sign of fair-weather 20
Tides on both sides of the earth. Moon's tides should be much greater than the earth's tides. The ocean of the moon is frozen 61
Spiral form of shells saves calcareous matter. Serves them as an organ of hearing. Calcareous matter produced from inflamed membranes. Colours of shells, labradore-stone from mother-pearl. Fossil shells not now found recent 66
Sea-insects like flowers. Actinia 82
Production of pearls, not a disease of the fish. Crab's eyes. Reservoirs of pearly matter 84
Rocks of coral in the south-sea. Coralloid limestone at Linsel, and
Coalbrook Dale 90
Rocks thrown from mountains, ice from glaciers, and portions of earth, or morasses, removed by columns of water. Earth-motion in Shropshire. Water of wells rising above the level of the ground. St. Alkmond's well near Derby might be raised many yards, so as to serve the town. Well at Sheerness, and at Hartford in Connecticut 116
Moonsoons attended with rain Overflowing of the Nile. Vortex of ascending air. Rising of the Dogstar announces the floods of the Nile. Anubis hung out upon their temples 129
Situations exempt from rain. At the Line in Lower Egypt. On the coast of
Peru 138
Giesar, a boiling fountain in Iceland. Water with great degrees of heat dissolves siliceous matter. Earthquake from steam 150
Warm springs not from decomposed pyrites. From steam rising up fissures from great depths 166
Buxton bath possesses 82 degrees of heat. Is improperly called a warm bath. A chill at immersion, and then a sensation of warmth, like the eye in an obscure room owing to increased sensibility of the skin 184
Water compounded of pure air and inflammable air with as much matter of heat as preserves it fluid. Perpetually decomposed by vegetables in the sun's light, and recomposed in the atmosphere 204
Mythological interpretation of Jupiter and Juno designed as an emblem of the composition of water from two airs 260
Death of Mrs. French 308
Tomb of Mr. Brindley 341
Invention of the pump. The piston lifts the atmosphere above it. The surrounding atmosphere presses up the water into the vacuum. Manner in which a child sucks 366
Air-cell in engines for extinguishing fire. Water dispersed by the explosion of Gunpowder. Houses preserved from fire by earth on the floors, by a second ceiling of iron-plates or coarse mortar. Wood impregnated with alabaster or flint 406
Muscular actions and sensations of plants 460
River Achelous. Horn of Plenty 495
Flooding lands defends them from vernal frosts. Some springs deposit calcareous earth. Some contain azotic gas, which contributes to produce nitre. Snow water less serviceable 540