Caroline. How wonderfully curious!
Mrs. B. It is impossible to consider any part of nature attentively, without being struck with admiration at the wisdom it displays; and I hope you will never contemplate these wonders, without feeling your heart glow with admiration and gratitude, towards their bounteous Author. Observe, that if the waters were never drawn out of the earth, all vegetation would be destroyed by the excess of moisture; if, on the other hand, the plants were not nourished and refreshed by occasional showers, the drought would be equally fatal to them. If the clouds constantly remained in a state of vapour, they might, as you remarked, descend into a heavier stratum of the atmosphere, but could never fall to the ground; or were the power of attraction more than sufficient to convert the vapour into drops, it would transform the cloud into a mass of water, which, instead of nourishing, would destroy the produce of the earth.
Water then ascends in the form of vapour, and descends in that of rain, snow, or hail, all of which ultimately become water. Some of this falls into the various bodies of water on the surface of the globe, the remainder upon the land. Of the latter, part reascends in the form of vapour, part is absorbed by the roots of vegetables, and part descends into the earth, where it forms springs.
Emily. Is there then no difference between rain water, and spring water?
Mrs. B. They are originally the same; but that portion of rain water which goes to supply springs, dissolves a number of foreign particles, which it meets with in its passage through the various soils it traverses.
Caroline. Yet spring water is more pleasant to the taste, appears more transparent, and, I should have supposed, would have been more pure than rain water.
Mrs. B. No; excepting distilled water, rain water is the most pure we can obtain; it is its purity which renders it insipid; whilst the various salts and different ingredients, dissolved in spring water, give it a species of flavour, which habit renders agreeable; these salts do not, in any degree, affect its transparency; and the filtration it undergoes, through gravel and sand, cleanses it from all foreign matter, which it has not the power of dissolving.
Emily. How is it that the rain water does not continue to descend by its gravity, instead of collecting together, and forming springs?
Mrs. B. When rain falls on the surface of the earth, it continues making its way downwards through the pores and crevices in the ground. When several drops meet in their subterraneous passage, they unite and form a little rivulet; this, in its progress, meets with other rivulets of a similar description, and they pursue their course together within the earth, till they are stopped by some substance, such as rock, or clay, which they cannot penetrate.
Caroline. But you say that there is some reason to believe that water can penetrate even the pores of gold, and it cannot meet with a substance more dense?