Waters

“ Perhaps the early waters covered the earth. And water was the second preparation for life—water, that can dissolve a larger variety of substances in greater concentration than any other liquid; water, that in summer does not readily evaporate altogether from a pond, nor in winter freeze throughout its whole extent; water, that is such a mobile vehicle and such a subtle cleaver of substances; water, that forms over 80 per cent. of living matter itself. ”

“ The waters, too, whether of the ocean or of the land, teem with animated beings. Scarcely is a particle of matter to be found that does not present inhabitants to our view; and a drop of ditch-water is a little world in itself, stored with inmates of corresponding magnitude. ”

“ When water encounters any substance of this nature, therefore, its progress is stopped, and it is diffused through the porous earth, and sometimes the pressure of the accumulating waters, forms a bed, or reservoir. ”

“ Here the vast bed of the waters, seamed and scarred into a thousand conflicting channels, burst suddenly into phrensied convulsion—heaving, boiling, hissing—gyrating in gigantic and innumerable vortices, and all whirling and plunging on to the eastward with a rapidity which water never elsewhere assumes except in precipitous descents. ”

“ When their waters flow gently, they afford to the observer, when taking astronomical observations with reflecting instruments, a most excellent artificial horizon. These waters probably owe their183 peculiar colour to a solution of carburetted hydrogen, to the luxuriance of the tropical vegetation, and to the quantity of plants and herbs on the ground over which they flow.—Humboldt’s Aspects of Nature, vol. ”

“ The cool liquid green will run through your veins, and the voice of the cataract will be the expression of your own heart. You will fall as the bright waters fall, rushing down into your new world with no hesitation and with no dismay; and you will rise again as the spray rises, bright, beautiful, and pure. Then you will flow away in your course to the uncompassed, distant, and eternal ocean. ”

“ Those rivers, augmenting in their volume as they unite, pour at last their mighty waters into the ocean; and thus is completed that circulation of wholesome fluids, which the earth requires in order to be a habitable world. ”

“ And as these surface-waters are drawn off into the clouds, their place is taken by lower layers continually rising from the depths. The sea itself is in constant and creative motion, but the influence of this great body of water extends far beyond its shores. ”

“ This system of circulation commenced on the third day of creation, with the “gathering together of the waters,” which were “called seas,” and doubtless will continue as long as sea water shall possess the properties of saltiness and fluidity. ”

“ It would take volumes to tell of all the effects of water as a dynamic agent in geology—of the action of frost, of percolating waters, of rain, of waves, of rivers, glaciers, lakes, oceans, subterranean waters, etc., of all these and more on the exterior and interior of the earth. ”

“ Once upon a time all the Rivers combined to protest against the action of the Sea in making their waters salt. "When we come to you," said they to the Sea, "we are sweet and drinkable: but when once we have mingled with you, our waters become as briny and unpalatable as your own." The Sea replied shortly, "Keep away from me and you'll remain sweet." ”

“ If the stream receives no water of another kind, or scarcely any, not only the rivers, but likewise the lakes which receive these waters, are of the same nature as the springs, and serve the same uses ”

“ Neither can water flow beyond the Power of its Quantity: for, a little water will not flow so far as a great one. But, I do not mean by flowing, the falling of water from some Descent; but, to flow upon a Level: for, as I have said, all waters do naturally flow, if they be not obstructed; but, few sorts of water, besides Sea-water, ebbs. As for the Exterior Figurative Motions of water, in the action of flowing, they are an Oval, or a half Circle, or a half Moon; where the middle parts of the half Moon, or Circle, are fuller than the two Ends. ”

“ Such isolation of sea waters takes place by means of geologic changes in the level of the land and sea. In the raising of an area above the water level there is almost certain to be an enclosure, of greater or less extent, of the sea water in the form of a lake. ”

“ The chief work of a river is to drain the land; to bear superfluous waters into the great deep. Water lying stagnant on land becomes harmful. Immense supplies are perpetually needed; but it must be fresh water, clear water, running water, water newly fallen from the skies, [p. 90] or newly received from ever fresh because ever renewed springs. ”

“ The effect of streams and fountains upon the mind seems more unusual and surprising. Yet, to a people unacquainted with physics, waters imbued with mineral properties, or exhaling mephitic vapours, may well appear possessed of a something preternatural. ”

“ "As all the rivers of the world constantly pour their waters into the ocean, but the ocean's grand, majestic nature remains undisturbed and unchanged, so even though all the senses bring in sensations from nature, the ocean-like heart of the sage knows no disturbance, knows no fear." ”

“ The river—with the sunlight flashing from its dancing wavelets, gilding gold the grey-green beech-trunks, glinting through the dark, cool wood paths, chasing shadows o’er the shallows, flinging diamonds from the mill-wheels, throwing kisses to the lilies, wantoning with the weirs’ white waters, silvering moss-grown walls and bridges, brightening every tiny townlet, making sweet each lane and meadow, lying tangled in the rushes, peeping, laughing, from each inlet, gleaming gay on many a far sail, making soft the air with glory—is a golden fairy stream. ”

“ The title to the bed of all lakes, ponds, and navigable rivers to the ordinary high-water mark is vested in the states. Thus the people who live around them may enjoy the waters the same as others enjoy tidal waters. ”

“ When the slender keel glides quickly over the mirrored waters upon the wings of the wind, it cuts for itself a sparkling way, and disturbs in their sleep the monsters of the deep, which whirl and dart quicker than an eight-knot ship ”

“ Each interwoven with the other's fate?
Are you not mixt like streams of meeting rivers,
Whose blended waters are no more distinguished,
But roll into the sea, one common flood? ”

“ Of the whole earth's surface the freshwaters form a very small fraction, about a hundredth, but they make up for their smallness by their variety. We think of deep lake and shallow pond, of the great river and the purling brook, of lagoon and swamp, and more besides. ”

“ More bounteous run rivers when the ice that locked their flow melts into their waters. And when fine natures relent, their kindness is swelled by the thaw. ”

“ The seeing eyes of the river men see the ugliness of a coming flood-wave in the look of a crossing or reach. Again, they catch the gentleness of the slacking and loafing waters by the wash of an eddy under a wide sand-bar. ”

“ And all the air is filled with pleasant noise of waters. ”

“ I sincerely trust there is no bloodshed," answered the young Southerner.
It was nightfall by the time the launch was clear of the bayou. In front of them lay the calm waters of Lake Sico—a shallow expanse, with mud flats at one side and a wilderness of trees, bushes, and wild canebrake at the other. They shut off the power and listened. ”

“ Soon came a whistling wind and then the rain fell in torrents. The sea was lashed into a white foam and the waves became higher and higher, crashing against the stern of the Mermaid, as she ran before them. ”

“ Coptic shepherds, lingering on the brink, drank the sweet waters, and led their flocks to drink at the shallows, when the shepherd's star cleft that deepest sky with its crest, and warned the simple people of their hour;—yet forever stood the Sphinx, passionately patient, looking for sunrise, over desert, vale, and river,—beyond man,—to her hour.—And the hour came.
Once to all things comes their hour. ”

“ Man seems a waif cast on the stream of time,
That bears him onward to the unknown shore;
That longed for, fearéd, dread, mysterious clime,
Toward which all hasten—to return no more.
Yet not so helpless is he as he seems,
Nor void of power to guide life's barque aright,
If Faith sits at the helm, and Hope's bright beams
Shine o'er the troubled waters when 'tis night,
Guiding and cheering like a beacon light,
Till peace is gained and life's cares gone like dreams. ”

“ Through rent rocks, down winding gorges, rushes on our steed of steel,
Till a blue lake's shining waters purest heaven in earth reveal;
Cares, begone; unrest, go packing; come, contentment with the light;
Take the omen that the morning shall be gain upon the night. ”

“ Such is the jade who leads us up hill and down, through jungles and morasses, into deep waters and into swamps, through thick weather and thin, under blue skies and brown ones, in heat and in cold, hungry and thirsty and ragged, and heart-sore and foot-sore, now hopeful and now hopeless, now striding and now stumbling, now exultant and now despairing, now singing, now sighing, and now swearing, up to her dilapidated old temple. ”

“ I have seen that it is possible for the stranger to pass through this great chapel, with its font of waters, and mountain pillars, and vaults of cloud, without being touched by one noble thought or stirred by any sacred passion; but for those who received from its waves the baptism of their youth, and learned beneath its rocks the fidelity of their manhood, and watched amidst its clouds the likeness of the dream of life, with the eyes of age,—for these I will not believe that the mountain-shrine was built or the calm of its forest-shadows guarded by their God in vain. ”

“ The inexorable Fate of the Greeks does not appear, but a good Providence interferes, and Heaven smiles graciously upon the scene. There is passion, indeed, grief and sorrow, sin and suffering,—but the tempest-stiller is here, who breathes tranquillity upon the waters, and pours serenity into the turbid deep. ”

“ Who would not give the meed of “Pulchræa gentis pulcherrima” to Sagartia rosea, with olive-brown or pinkish-drab column, dark greenish-brown discs, and two or three rows of exquisite satiny, rose-coloured, bluntish tentacles, as its brilliant hue flashes on one’s sight for the first time from within the darkened chamber and sanded couch that it loves best in the limestone rock? The light and warmth from heaven are grateful to its senses, the roar of the waters and the battling of the waves are sweetest music to its ears, and soothingly tranquillising to its comfort in activity or repose. ”

“ The bob cat rolled over and over, clawing at the rubber cloth and ripping it to shreds. The boys tried to get another shot, but did not dare to fire for fear of hitting each other. But the dog leaped in and caught the bob cat by the back of the neck, and an instant later cat and canine went whirling over the side of the boat into the waters of the lake.
"They are overboard!" cried Sam.
"Make a light, somebody!" yelled Songbird. "It isn't safe in the dark."
The acetylene gas lamp of the launch was ready for use, and striking a match Harold Bird lit it. ”

“ Now, the power of this moving water is a mighty wide-spread agent of change in the physical condition of the globe. For wherever water is in motion over the surface of the land, whether it be a rippling stream, or a mountain torrent, or a majestic river, it is surely wearing away the channel through which it flows, and carrying along in its course particles of clay, or sand, or gravel. ”

“ God has so made it that as much water is incessantly rising into the air from the sea as is being poured into it. But how is it, then, that the streams and rivers do not dry up ? Whence comes that volume of water which they are continuously pouring into the sea? The mists and clouds which rise from the sea are driven over the land by the wind, and fall back on the earth in the form of either dew, fog, rain or snow. ”

“ Land boundaries: 1,899 km
WATER Limits of territorial waters (claimed) : 12 nm (fishing 200 nm; 200 nm exclusive economic zone)
Coastline: 4,964 km (includes Balearic Islands, 677 km, and Canary Islands, 1,158 km)
PEOPLE Population: 37,940,000 (July 1982) , including the Balearic and Canary Islands and Ceuta and Melilla (two towns on the Moroccan coast) ; average annual growth rate 0.7%
Nationality: noun—Spaniard (s) ”

“ By tracing the course of a river, we find that both its beginning and its ending are in the sea. All its water is derived from the sea, and to the sea it returns its floods. But if we seek for its causes, we find that its beginning and its ending are in the sun. For it is the fire of the sun that produces the clouds from which the water of the river is derived, and it is the same fire of the sun that dries up its stream. ”

“ It is the sea water mingling here into the river—
at least so it seems—perhaps it is something else—but what matter?
The sea water! It is quiet and smooth here!
How slowly they move, little by little trying
the hawsers that drop and groan with their agony. ”

“ At our feet a stream was struggling with the multitude of rude rocks, which Nature, in one of her primeval convulsions, had flung here and there in masses into its current; sometimes uniting into irregular ledges, over which the water swept with impetuosity;—sometimes standing insulated in the stream, and increasing the energies of the river by their resistance;—sometimes breaking forward from the bank, and giving a bolder effect to its romantic outline. ”

“ Fresh water may, farther, be divided into atmospheric, which includes hail, rain, and snow-water, and also dew; stagnant, such as that of lakes, ponds, and marshes; and running, which comprehends spring, well, and river-water. ”

“ Why is the water in some wells much warmer than in others?
In wells where the water is warm, the streams flowing into them are near the surface of the earth, and are heated by the sun; but in the wells of cold water, the streams are much deeper in the earth. ”