Warm water

“ The moist air fares like the wet clothes we spoke of; the warm dry air absorbs its particles of water. But if a colder stratum of air approaches the stratum containing clouds, then the water-particles of the latter are condensed; the cloud becomes small drops of water; these drops are too heavy to be supported in the air, and they fall down as rain. ”

“ From the thermal waters, in some cases 100 feet below the soil, and without means of access except by buckets let down through an opening in the rock, warm vapors issue at early morn, but when the sun is high the water is cool and pleasant to drink. ”

“ The cooler air from the land is carried over the water by convection currents, flows in and under the warm air, is heated by the water and rises, to be replaced in turn by the further flow of cold air from the land. ”

“ Then the heat produced is conducted off far less rapidly than in aquatic forms. Water is a good conductor of heat, and nearly all aquatic animals are cold-blooded. The few which are warm-blooded are protected by a thick layer of non-conducting fat. ”

“ In the morning the sun rose brilliant and quickly wore away the thin layer of ice that covered the water, and all the warm air was quivering with the steam that rose up from the quickened earth. ”

“ When we were talking about the clouds we learnt that from every wet place, as well as from the seas, lakes, and rivers, water is constantly being drawn up, so that we can see it again in the fleecy clouds which float across the sky, and again when it comes down in the showers which water the earth—the tiny heat-waves are the messengers which perform this work of evaporation. ”

“ For here the wind not only has free scope, but it also finds another element, fluid but incompressible, to obey its impulse and follow in the course which it takes. If the WIND be like a wild spirit, the WATER is a mighty, irresistible body, endowed with motion by the other, and capable of any work, from the drowning of a sea-gull to the wrecking of a stately ship. ”

“ Wherever the sun-waves touch the rivers, ponds, lakes, seas, or fields of ice and snow upon our earth, they carry off invisible water-vapour. They dart down through the top layers of the water, and shake the water-particles forcibly apart; and in this case the drops fly asunder more easily and before they are so hot, because they are not kept down by a great weight of water above, as in the kettle, but find plenty of room to spread themselves out in the gaps between the air-atoms of the atmosphere. ”

“ Water, be it cold or warm, that which buoys up blue ice-fields, or which bathes tropical coasts with currents of balmy bliss, is yet a gentle conqueror, kisses as it kills, and draws you down gently through darkening fathoms to its heart. ”

“ Add to this that in these cold moist days as we pass along or as the wind blows upon us, a new sheet of cold water is as it were perpetually applied to us and hangs upon our bodies, now as water is 800 times denser than air and is a much better conductor of heat, we are starved with cold like those who go into a cold bath, both by the great number of particles in contact with the skin and their greater facility of receiving our heat. ”

“ We can now judge of the enormous amount of moisture carried up by the sun and dispersed over the earth in rain, which swells our brooks and rivers, cleanses the air of its impurities, supplies our springs, carries with it into the sea lime from the rocks for the shells of marine animals, and then leaving its salts, is again evaporated to form clouds, which discharge the fresh water continually upon the earth in a never-ceasing rotation. ”

“ Plants and animals perspire more on a hot day than on a cold one. The land and water give off more vapor in the summer than in the winter. Wring a handkerchief out of hot water, hang it in the sun and see how quickly it dries. Set a shallow pan of water in the sun and see how soon the water disappears. The air is always thirsty. ”

“ These springs feed the streams and rivers which carry the water back again to the sea. It is owing to this continuous circulation of water that the sea does not overflow, or the rivers dry up. Moreover, those damp exhalations supply the air with that moisture which is necessary to the life of men and beasts, and to the growth of plants. One thing more. You know that water turns foul when it remains for some time without being stirred. How is it that though it is shut in one place, the water of the sea never turns foul? ”

“ In other words, the bright vapour, after kindling in the bowl of the sun and going out again, reappears as the dark fiery storm-cloud, and so passes once more into sea. At the next stage we find water continually passing into earth. ”

“ A natural source of water which in its character most nearly approaches distilled water is rain. In fact, rain-water is a distilled water, for the sun’s heat vaporizes the water from the surface of the earth forming clouds, which on cooling, are condensed and come down as rain. ”

“ All this water has come from your lungs as you have slept. In a very cold day the water in your breath freezes upon whatever is about your mouth. You see the water of the breath of a horse frozen on the hairs about his mouth.
So you see water is going up into the air all the time from the ground, the leaves, the animals, and indeed from every thing that is at all moist. It goes up also in great quantities from seas, rivers, lakes, etc. Water, then, is always moving. It runs and it flies. It flies up into the air, and comes down again in the rain to run in the streams. ”

“ The water which flows on the earth is constantly changing its form; the heat of the sun causes it to evaporate, or to become vapor, and to mingle with the atmosphere. In time, the vapor cools, condenses, and falls as snow or rain; the water which is thus returned to the earth feeds our rivers, lakes, springs, and wells, and these in turn supply water to man. When water falls upon a field, it soaks into the ground, or collects in puddles which slowly evaporate, or it runs off and drains into small streams or into rivers. ”

“ It is scarcely necessary for me to observe that water may come down a hill, although it never goes up. Rain, snow, dew, and generally all the vapors that fall from the atmosphere, furnish the enormous masses of water that are constantly flowing into the sea. ”

“ Now the sun is continually changing the water of rivers, ponds, lakes, and of the ocean, into vapor. This vapor rises. The air about a mile above the earth, is much colder than it is on the earth; so when the hot vapor from the ocean meets the cold air, it again becomes water, and forms clouds. ”

“ The warmer the atmosphere, the greater its capacity to hold moisture. The heated, thirsty air of the tropics drinks up the water of the ocean, and bears it away to the colder regions, where, through condensation by cold, it becomes visible as a cloud ”

“ Water, tumbling as snow, hardens into ice, and rasps away continually at the surfaces of the mountains. Rivers scrape off, and carry away with them, every particle of earth that they meet with on their journey to the sea. ”

“ In this way the sun-waves and the air carry off water everyday, and all day long, from the top of lakes, rivers, pools, springs, and seas, and even from the surface of ice and snow. Without any fuss or noise or sign of any kind, the water of our earth is being drawn up invisibly into the sky. ”

“ The operations of water.—There are processes no less interesting going on in other parts of this magnificent field of research. Water is nature's carrier. With its currents it conveys heat away from the torrid zone and ice from the frigid; or, bottling the caloric away in the vesicles of its vapour, it first makes it impalpable, and then conveys it, by unknown paths, to the most distant parts of the earth. The materials of which the coral builds the island, and the sea-conch its shell, are gathered by this restless leveller from mountains, rocks, and valleys in all latitudes. ”

“ Can you imagine these water-particles, just above any pond or lake, rising up and getting entangled among the air-atoms? They are very light, much lighter than the atmosphere; and so, when a great many of them are spread about in the air which lies just over the pond, they make it much lighter than the layer of air above, and so help it to rise, while the heavier layer of air comes down ready to take up more vapour. ”

“ Heat is the agent that distils for us fresh water from the sea. It pumps up out of the ocean all the water for our lakes and rivers, and gives power to the winds to transport it as vapour thence to the mountains. ”

“ Add to this, that when the air has been exhausted of its moisture by long rain, the spray of the sea is caught by it as described above, and covers its surface not merely with the smoke of finely divided water, but with boiling mist: imagine also the low rain-clouds brought down to the very level of the sea, as I have often seen them, whirling and flying in rags and fragments from wave to wave ”

“ Even if the surface water of a lake or river freezes, or becomes unusually hot, there is generally plenty of water at a lower stratum which maintains a less extreme temperature, and to which creatures can retire on the first symptoms of a change. ”

“ Rain waters, then, are the lightest, the sweetest, the thinnest, and the clearest; for originally the sun raises and attracts the thinnest and lightest part of the water, as is obvious from the nature of salts; for the saltish part is left behind owing to its thickness and weight, and forms salts; but the sun attracts the thinnest part, owing to its lightness, and he abstracts this not only from the lakes, but also from the sea, and from all things which contain humidity, and there is humidity in everything; and from man himself the sun draws off the thinnest and lightest part of the juices. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Water, in the state of rain, hail, snow, or dew, is generally the only substance which falls from the atmosphere upon the earth. There are, however, many well authenticated instances of various substances being showered down upon the land, to the great alarm of persons who were ignorant that the powerful action of the wind was, perhaps, the chief cause of the strange visitations to which we allude.
We read of showers of sand, mud, sulphur, blood, fishes, frogs, insects, and stones ”

“ You say that on a very fine but still night, water is cooled less rapidly than the earth: under such circumstances the bottom of the pond cools more rapidly than the surface, the plants become colder—in fact, some degrees below the freezing-point, &c. ”

“ DEW, CLOUDS, AND RAIN.
The sun is all the time heating the water on the land and in the sea, and changing it into vapor, which rises in the air. We cannot see the vapor; but it is in the air around us.
If the vapor in the air is suddenly cooled, a strange thing happens. Some of it quickly changes back into water. You have often seen, in the early morning, little drops of water hanging like pearls upon the blades of grass. ”

“ Rain is the vapour of the clouds which, being condensed by a fall of temperature, forms drops of water that descend to the earth.
It is the return to the earth in the form of water, of the moisture absorbed by the air in the form of vapour.
417. Does rain ever occur without clouds?
It sometimes, but rarely happens, that a sudden transition from [Pg 101] warmth to cold will precipitate the moisture of the air, without the formation of visible clouds. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The rain-water comes down from heaven as water, and nothing but water. Rain-water is the only pure water, after all. How would you save that for the poor people who have none? There; run away and hunt rabbits on the moor: but look, meanwhile, how you would save some of this beautiful and precious water which is roaring away into the sea. ”

“ In the order of the conversion of the elements it appears to me, that water is to air what air is to fire, and that all the transformations of nature depend on them. Air, like the food of fire, assimilates with it, and is transformed into this first element. Water, rarefied by heat, is transformed into a kind of air capable of feeding the fire like common air. ”

“ The water in all these rivers, lakes, and oceans is constantly rising into the air in what is called moisture or vapor. We can not see this moisture, neither can we see the air.
If the air is cold, moisture does not rise rapidly; but, as the air becomes heated, it takes up more moisture, so that the more heat there is in the air, the more moisture rises. ”

“ And as in respiration the flowing breath is continually breathed out and drawn in, so there the wind oscillating with the liquid causes certain vehement and irresistible winds both as it enters and goes out. When, therefore, the water rushing in descends to the place which we call the lower region, it flows through the earth into the streams there, and fills them, just as men pump up water. ”

“ Heated air is light, and rises higher and higher from the ground, taking the moisture with it, until it reaches a point where it begins to cool.
Then as the air cools, the moisture forms into clouds, and these clouds are, in a certain sense, floating water. ”