Spring (waterbody)

“ Water runs over them only in the spring, in the rare cases when they have been pressed down smoothly and compactly by the weight of the snow—a state in which they remain only until they are dry, when shrinkage and the action of the wind soon roughen the surface so as effectually to stop, by absorption, all flow of water. I have observed that when a sudden frost succeeds a thaw at the close of the winter, after the snow has principally disappeared, the water in and between the layers of leaves sometimes freezes into a solid crust, which allows the flow of water over it. ”

“ A spring is always old and always new. It is ever in movement, yet constant, seldom greater and seldom less, in the case of most natural upspringing waters, syphoned from the deep cisterns of earth. Absolutely material, with no mystery in its origin, it impresses the fancy as a thing unaccountable, like the source of life embodied, something self-engendered. ”

“ A certain quantity of the water which is absorbed by the ground after rain must penetrate to a great depth, must descend, in fact, until at 11⁄2 miles it is boiled and driven up again to find some outlet as a spring. In rising up, however, it is for the most part cooled; but having charged itself with various saline and metallic bodies, under the most favourable circumstances of high temperature and pressure, it issues as a hot mineral spring or spa. ”

“ If the spring is located higher than the grounds and buildings to be supplied, a simple gravity supply line may be carried from it, with pipes of good size, thus avoiding undue friction in the line, and stoppages. If lower than the house, the water from the spring must be raised by some pumping method.
All water found underground owes its origin to the rainfall. If concealed water is returned to the surface by natural processes it is called spring water, but if recovered by artificial means it is called well water. ”

“ As we have seen, certain wells in our own land could control the weather. This was so, even when the guardian spirit of the spring assumed no definite shape. The rites required to obtain the desired object were nothing less than an acknowledgment of the spirit’s existence. The origin of the connection between weather and wells can only be guessed at. It appears that the splashing of a spring when an object was thrown into it, or the sprinkling of the water over the neighbouring ground, was thought to cause rain, through what may be called a dramatic representation of a shower. ”

“ It enables us to build our homes where we wish. Spring water is that which finds its way to the surface through some tiny crack or fissure in the rocks. How delicious is the pure, cold water that comes out of the shady hollow in the hills! You can form in your minds a picture of the rain falling on some distant mountain, of its soaking into the ground and finally reaching the little crevices in the rocks. ”

“ B. A spring can never rise above the level of the reservoir whence it issues; it must, therefore, find a passage to some part of the surface of the earth, that is lower, or nearer the centre, than the reservoir. It is true that, in this figure, the spring rises in its passage from B to C; but this, I think, with a little reflection, you will be able to account for.
Emily. Oh, yes; it is owing to the pressure of fluids upwards; and the water rises in the duct, upon the same principle as it rises in the spout of a tea-pot ”

“ The clearness of the water may be likened to the air itself, for at its greatest depth of eighty feet objects on the bottom may be clearly and distinctly seen, likewise the fissure through which the water pours up like a veritable fountain. A peculiarity of the spring is the prismatic colors which are reflected from any white or shiny object thrown into it. ”

“ When the wind blows, it mixes all parts of the air together, and prevents that difference of temperature which causes the deposit of dew. Hence the evening mist will be more generally observed in the bosom of a valley surrounded by hills and screened from the winds that may blow from either quarter. The continual presence of moisture in the air is well shown by the condensation of water on the outside of a glass of cold spring water, or especially on the outside of a jug containing iced water. ”

“ The water, if taken from a well or cold spring, should be exposed one day to the sun, otherwise it will chill the plants. A small quantity only should be applied at a time, that it may have the effect of refreshing rain.
Rain water is the best for plants; next river water; hard spring water is the worst. ”

“ The phenomena of the seasons, of the trade-winds, of the Gulf Stream, are as much the results of the reaction between these inner activities and outward forces, as are the budding of the leaves in spring, and their falling in autumn the effects of the interaction between the organisation of a plant and the solar light and heat. And, as the study of the activities of the living being is called its physiology, so are these phenomena the subject matter of an analogous telluric physiology, to which we sometimes give the name of meteorology ”

“ The principal peculiarity in the appearance of this spring, is a large quantity of elastic vapour that rises, and forms bubbles, which pass through the water, and break as soon as they reach the surface. ”

“ Ans. Our Springs do not sensibly alter in their decrease or increase in either dry or wet seasons; for, being plentiful Springs, we have alwayes the Pitt full; Only this is observ'd by the Briners, that they make more Salt with the same quantity of Brine in dry, than in wet seasons; and more Salt of the same quantity of Brine at the Full of the Moon, than at any other time.
2. How long before the Spring, or in the Spring, it may be, before the Fountains break our into their fullest source? An. 'Tis not observable at all in our Salt-springs. ”

“ Every winter ice thrusts its expansive wedge into each opening. Places are so shattered by this explosive action that thousands of gallons of water are admitted. This collects in openings, and the following winter the freezing and forcing continues. During the winter the irresistible expansion of freezing water thus pushes the rocks and widens the openings with a force that is slow but powerful. Winter by winter rocks are moved; summer by summer the water helps enlarge the opening. Years or centuries go by, and at last during a rainy time or in the spring thaw a mass slips away or falls over. ”

“ The [109] springs do not gush out in streams as from rocky formations, but ooze up into great mounds, frequently involving an acre or more, like a great conical sponge, up the side of which you can walk, the water gushing out under every footstep, giving an impression that you may sink in all the way to the top, where you will find an open spring several feet across, the water from which seems to be absorbed by this spongy mound of earth and vegetation, so that a stream rarely runs away. ”

“ Springs supply water which, originally derived from rain-water, has percolated through the soil until it reaches some impervious stratum, and has then run along this, until it arrives at the point at which the impervious stratum reaches the surface of the soil. A spring is thus the outcrop of the underground water. ”

“ Of these, hail is too infrequent to be taken into account, while frost usually occurs only at the extremes of the growing season, and in its effect is rather to be reckoned with temperature. Snow rarely falls except during the period of rest, and, while it plays an important part as cover, it is merely one of several factors that determine the water-content of the soil at the beginning of spring. ”

“ On the approach of spring, the warmer air, and the rays of the more elevated sun, act directly on the surface of the ice, and each portion of water formed by melting, becoming heavier, sinks, so as to expose the ice itself to the source of heat. Thus the ice is rapidly dissolved, and after a few days the lake throws off its wintry aspect altogether. ”

“ If we test the spring with a thermometer during successive months, we shall find that its temperature remains much the same the year round. In summer it is markedly cooler than the stream; in winter it is warmer and remains unfrozen while the latter perhaps is locked in ice. ”

“ The association of spring tide with full and change is obvious, and a fiction has been adopted by which it is held that spring tide is generated in those configurations of the moon and sun, but takes some time to reach the port of observation. ”

“ In late summer and autumn the circulation in the leaves is impeded by the deposition of mineral matter, so that the plant or tree becomes gorged with the fluids which are ready to flow again at the coming of spring. ”

“ The rain, which is pure water, except for the little particles of various things floating in the air which it brings down with it, soaks into the ground, forming springs, and helps to swell the ponds and lakes and rivers, and so it gets mineral and other substances in it again, especially salt, which is found in small quantities in all spring-water, and this impure water is carried to the ocean again to be purified ”

“ As vapor rises into high, cool air, or is carried with the air in winds up the sides of mountains, it turns into water again, and comes falling down as rain.
Now think where the rain that falls on mountains must go. Some of the water runs off on the surface, down the mountain slope. Some sinks into the ground, and runs along in little streams below the surface. It will appear again, bubbling out of the mountain side as a spring. The spring is the beginning of a river. ”

“ It has been observed, that spring frosts principally disorder those plants where there is humidity, the soils which transpire much, the bottoms of vallies, and in general all places which cannot be dried by the wind and sun are the most injured. ”

“ Others, deriving their waters from a deeper layer of soil, as from the stratum of constant heat, are always the same, and, possessing the mean temperature of the place, feel warm in winter and cold in summer. Such springs exist in every country, and are very useful in ascertaining the mean temperature, for in place of watching a thermometer for a year, and taking averages, it is only necessary to select with proper caution such a deeply supplied spring, and by observing the temperature of its waters, the mean temperature of the place is found. ”

“ In ground that is springy, or naturally moist, the roots do not depend so much on the rainfall but reach out after moisture wherever it exists in the soil.
Spring seems to give a new impulse to life, especially to vegetable life, which always responds promptly to the genial rays of the sun. ”

“ "Is the spring coming?" he said. "What is it like? You don't see it in rooms if you are ill."
"It is the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sunshine, and things pushing up and working under the earth," said Mary. ”

“ The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning his little home. First with brooms, then with dusters; then on ladders and steps and chairs, with a brush and a pail of whitewash; till he had dust in his throat and eyes, and splashes of whitewash all over his black fur, and an aching back and weary arms. Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent and longing. ”

“ When spring came, after that hard winter, one could not get enough of the nimble air. Every morning I wakened with a fresh consciousness that winter was over. There were none of the signs of spring for which I used to watch in Virginia, no budding woods or blooming gardens. There was only—spring itself; the throb of it, the light restlessness, the vital essence of it everywhere: in the sky, in the swift clouds, in the pale sunshine, and in the warm, high wind—rising suddenly, sinking suddenly, impulsive and playful like a big puppy that pawed you and then lay down to be petted. ”

“ It is a place of fine weather, and this is a book of fine weather, a book written in Spring. I will not remember the winter and the rain. It was the Spring that brought Sarah Brown to Mitten Island, and the Spring that first showed her magic. It was the Spring that awoke her on her first morning in the House of Living Alone. ”

“ XI SPRING, SPRING! Bytuene Mershe ant Averil, when spray beginneth to spring! When shaws be sheene and swards full fayre, and leaves both large and longe! When the hounds of spring are on winter’s traces, in the spring time, the only pretty ring time, when the birds do sing, hey-ding-a-ding ding, cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-wee, ta-witta-woo! And so on and so on and soon. See almost any poet between the Bronze Age and 1850. ”

“ The mill was silent, as was its wont; the afternoon sunlight glinted through the dense laurel and the sparse spring foliage of the deciduous trees; the great cliff on a ledge of which Royce was standing beetled above the smooth flow of the stream. Many a fissure broke the massive walls of stone; here herbage grew and vines swung, and the mould was moist and fragrant; the perfume of the wild cherry tree in a niche on the summit filled all the air. ”

“ NOTHING is so beautiful as spring—
When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;
Thrush's eggs look little low heavens, and thrush
Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring
The ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing; ”

“ It was a night of early spring,
The winter-sleep was scarcely broken;
Around us shadows and the wind
Listened for what was never spoken.
Though half a score of years are gone,
Spring comes as sharply now as then—
But if we had it all to do
It would be done the same again.
It was a spring that never came,
But we have lived enough to know
What we have never had, remains;
It is the things we have that go. ”