Water surface

“ The rainfall may be divided into three parts: the first DRIES UP, being discharged into the air by evaporation either directly from the soil or through vegetation; the second RUNS OFF over the surface to flood the streams; the third SOAKS IN the ground and is henceforth known as GROUND or UNDERGROUND WATER.
THE DESCENT OF GROUND WATER. Seeping through the mantle of waste, ground water soaks into the pores and crevices of the underlying rock. All rocks of the upper crust of the earth are more or less porous, and all drink in water. ”

“ All over the surface of the land the water which falls from the sky courses seaward in brooks and rivers, bearing into the great deep the materials which are worn away from the land. Water is thus ceaselessly circulating between the air, the land, and the sea. ”

“ Besides the ocean, the hydrosphere includes all the water which constitutes the surface streams and lakes, together with that which permeates the pores and fissures of the outer part of the solid earth ”

“ Thus we learn that it is the warmth of the sun that has made the water boil. If you visit the water-works you will see great reservoirs. In some cases they have been filled by a river, sometimes the water is pumped from a15 deep well in the ground, sometimes it is the surface-water caught on a mountain side. Whatever be the immediate source of our water supply, the real origin is to be sought, not in the earth beneath, but in the heavens above. All the water we use day by day has come from the clouds. ”

“ Water covers such a large proportion of the earth's surface and is such an important factor in the economy of nature that it becomes a matter of interest to study the process of its distribution. Water is to our globe what blood is to our bodies. A constant circulation must be kept up or all animal and vegetable life would suffer. Here, as in every other operation of nature, the sun is the great heart and motive power that is active in the distribution of moisture over the face of the globe. ”

“ The water, which displaces and transports to a distance these heavy masses, does [449] not abrade the surface when it acts by itself. We see this surface, on rocks and the sides of piers and dikes, perpetually beaten by the waves, covered with fuci, confervæ, byssi, and other delicate vegetables, without roots, which the waves have not prevented from contracting a first and feeble adherence, and which they do not hinder from growing. But, if the waves carry with them pebbles, or even sand, it is those hard bodies which act; the surface of the rocks is abraded, and all vegetation ceases. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Water rises to the surface in natural springs at points where the pressure or head, due to its entrance into the ground at a higher level, is sufficient to force it to the surface after a longer or shorter underground course. ”

“ The whole surface of the earth is divided into drainage areas that lead either directly through rivulets and rivers to the ocean, or into some land-locked basin, where it either finds an outlet under ground or is kept within bounds through the process of evaporation, the same as is the case with our great oceans. ”

“ As the layers of earth or rock, of which the {82}crust of the earth is made up, do not run level, or horizontal, but are tilted and tipped in all directions, this rain water soaks down until it reaches one of these sloping layers that is so hard, or tough, as to be waterproof, and then runs along over its surface in a sort of underground stream. ”

“ When well water is used for drinking some knowledge of the geology of the home grounds is essential. Thus, because the top of a well is on higher ground than the cess-pool is no reason for assuming that the contents of the latter may not seep into the water, for the inclination of the strata of the rocks may be in a contrary direction to that of the surface of the ground. ”

“ For the present it will be enough if we learn something regarding the first of these facts—the waves of the sea.
Here again you may profitably illustrate by familiar objects what goes on upon so vast a scale in nature. Take a basin, or a long trough of water, and blow upon the water at one edge. You throw its surface into ripples, which, as you will observe, start from the place where your breath first hits the water, and roll onward until they break in little wavelets upon the opposite margin of the basin. ”

“ The sun is changing the surface water into steam which rises into the sky to form a part of another bank of clouds. The earth has soaked up quantities of the water that fell. If we followed the racing currents in the gullies we should find them pouring into sewer mains at various points, and from these underground pipes the water is conducted to some outlet like a river. All of the streams are swollen by the hundreds of brooks and rivulets that are carrying the surface water to the lowest level. ”

“ The primary source of lake water is atmospheric precipitation, which may reach the lakes through rain, melting ice and snow, springs, rivers and immediate run-off from the land-surfaces. The surface of the earth, with which we are directly in touch, is composed of lithosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere, and these interpenetrate. ”

“ If this highest point of the waterproof layer be many miles away, up in the hills above the surface of the ground where the well is dug, then the water will rise to the surface and sometimes even spout twenty, thirty, or fifty feet above it. ”

“ The chief source of supply for water which falls on the earth is from the ocean. The heat of the sun raises a vapour from its surface. This vapour condenses and falls as rain or snow, either on sea or land. Rain after falling for some time is almost pure and for that reason is called soft. Hard water contains various minerals. ”

“ Surface water may be obtained from brooks flowing through uninhabited upland or from mountain streams. Such water is very pure and limpid, particularly where the stream in its downward course tumbles over rocks or forms waterfalls. ”

“ Water of good quality is readily found in it by digging a few feet below the surface at the angles where the stream forms the deepest hollows, and in some places the stony sides give out bubbling springs. ”

“ Those who admit design among terrestrial adaptations, or have studied the economy of cosmical arrangements, will not be loth to grant that by design the atmosphere keeps in circulation a certain amount of moisture; that the water of which this moisture is made is supplied by the aqueous surface of the earth, and that it is to be returned to the seas again through rivers and the process of precipitation ”

“ Where surface waters are not readily available, the subterranean water is of first importance. It is generally known that, underlying the earth's surface at various depths, there is a large quantity of free water. ”

“ Water is never found pure in nature; it is nearly pure when gathered in an open field, after a heavy rainfall, or from springs. For town and city supply, surface-water is furnished by some adjacent pond or lake. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ But it is observable that the waters of lakes and ponds stand immovable, because the air about them stagnates immovable and admits of no vacuity. For the water on the surface of lakes and seas is troubled and fluctuates as the air is moved, it following the motion of the air, and moving as it is moved. ”

“ The same kind of rolling cylinders of water obtain in rivers owing to the friction of the water against the earth at their bottoms; as is known by bodies having been observed to float upon their surfaces quicker than when immersed to a certain depth. These vertical eddies of air probably exist all over the earth's surface, but particularly at the bottom or sides of mountains; and more so probably in the course of the south-west than of the north-east winds ”

“ Whether the water table be found close to the surface or far down, the atmosphere finds access to some parts of the rocks down to that horizon. The depth below the surface depends on the water supply, on the character of the rocks and on the surface topography, and it is different in the same place at different times, but always and everywhere the gases that surround and surmount us, are pursuing their underground activities as well. ”

“ The surface of smooth water is best represented by working the tints in a horizontal direction, but reflections in water are generally perpendicular. If the water is turbid the shadows will be visible on the surface, but in perfectly pure water they can hardly be recognized. ”

“ The bottom of a lake we cannot see, because its surface is covered with ripples. It is only possible for us to catch a glimpse of the bottom, when the ripples have subsided, and the water is calm. ”

“ Includes well-water and all others that arise from some depth below the surface of the earth, and which are used at the fountain-head, or at least before they have run any considerable distance exposed to the air. ”

“ Through centuries of centuries, fire and water face each other; the fire, upright, buoyant and leaping; the water flat, creeping, gliding, widening its lines and its surface. When they touch, is it the water which hisses and roars, or is it the fire? ”

“ What in water did Bloom, waterlover, drawer of water, watercarrier, returning to the range, admire?
Its universality: its democratic equality and constancy to its nature in seeking its own level: its vastness in the ocean of Mercator’s projection: its unplumbed profundity in the Sundam trench of the Pacific exceeding 8000 fathoms: the restlessness of its waves and surface particles visiting in turn all points of its seaboard: the independence of its units: the variability of states of sea: its hydrostatic quiescence in calm: its hydrokinetic turgidity in neap and spring tides: ”

“ Others taunt me with having knelt at well-curbs
Always wrong to the light, so never seeing
Deeper down in the well than where the water
Gives me back in a shining surface picture
My myself in the summer heaven, godlike
Looking out of a wreath of fern and cloud puffs.
Once, when trying with chin against a well-curb,
I discerned, as I thought, beyond the picture,
Through the picture, a something white, uncertain,
Something more of the depths—and then I lost it.
Water came to rebuke the too clear water.
One drop fell from a fern, and lo, a ripple
Shook whatever it was lay there at bottom, ”

“ In connection with the question of absorption and filtration, it is interesting to investigate the movements of water in the ground. The natural tendency of water, in the soil as well as out of it, is to descend perpendicularly toward the center of the earth. ”

“ In the shallow parts of many Swiss lakes, where there is a depth of no more than from 5 to 15 feet of water, ancient wooden piles are observed at the bottom sometimes worn down to the surface of the mud, sometimes projecting slightly above it. ”

“ A part of the water which falls as rain, and a part of that which results from the melting of snow and ice, sinks into the soil and into the rock below, becoming ground water. It is this ground water which especially justifies the name hydrosphere, often applied to the waters of the earth, for it literally forms a spherical layer in the outer portion of the solid part of the earth. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The action of water in stream and sea, in springs and wells, is evident to all; but the activity of ground water—that is, rain water which sinks into the soil and remains there—is little known in general. ”

“ To give a recipe for getting a rough idea, in case you want to, I recommend the following procedure. Select a flat ten-acre ploughed field, so sited that all the surface water of the surrounding country drains into it. Now cut a zig-zag slot about four feet deep and three feet wide diagonally across, dam off as much water as you can so as to leave about a hundred yards of squelchy mud; ”

“ To the philosopher, the places which supply the vapors are as suggestive and as interesting for the instruction they afford, as the places are upon which the vapors are showered down. Therefore, as he who studies the physical geography of the land is expected to make himself acquainted with the regions of precipitation, so he who looks into the physical geography of the sea should search for the regions of evaporation, and for those springs in the ocean which supply the reservoirs among the mountains with water to feed the rivers ”