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Show r rs4 J The barbed head on whirling jafpers grind, And dip the point in poifon for the mind ; Each polifh' d fhaft with fnow-white plu1nage Wing, Or firain the bow reluCtant to its firing. Thofe on light pinion twine with bufy hands, Or firc tch from bough to bough the flowery bands; I 7 o Scare the dark beetle, as he wheels on high, Or catch in filken nets the gilded fly; Call the young Zephyrs to their fragrant bowers, And fiay with kiffes f weet the Vernal Hours. Where, as proud . MalTon rifes rude and bleak, 17 5 And with misihapen turrets crefts the Peak, Old Matlock gapes with marble jaws, beneath, And o'er fear' d Derwent bends his flinty teeth ; Deep in wide caves below the dangerous foil ·Blue fulphurs flame, imprifon' d waters boil. 180 · De~p in wide cavn. 1. '79· The arguments which tend to fhew that the warm fprings of tb1s country are produced from fl:eam raifed by deep fubterraneous .fires, and afterwards condenfed between the fl:rata of the mountains, appear to me much more conclufi¥ e than the idea of their. being warmed by chemical combinations near the furface of ( 155 J Impetuous fieams in fpiral columns rife Through rifted rocks, itnpatient for the lkies; Or o'er brjght feas of bubblino- lavas blow . b ' As heave and tofs the billowy fires below ; Condenfed on high, in wandering rills they glide 1 8 5 From Maffon's dome, and burfi his fparry fide; Round his grey towers, and down his fringed walls, From cliff to cliff, the liquid treafure falls ; In beds of fialaB:itc, brjght ores among, 0 'er corals, !hells, and cryftals winds alono- · ' b, the e~rth; far, J fl, their heat 'has kept accurately the fame perhaps for m::my centuries~ ccrtatnly as long a<; we have been pofleffed of good thermometers; which cannot be well explained, without fuppofing that they are firfl: in a boiling fl:ate. For as the heat of boiling water is 212, and that of the internal parts of the earth 48, it is eafy to underfiand, that the !learn raifed from boiling water, aft er 'being condenfed in fome mountain, and palling from thence -through a certain fp ace of the cold earth, muft be cooled always to a given degree; nnd it is probable the ·dillance from the exit of the fpring, to the place where the Hearn is condenfed, might ·be guelfed by the degree of its warmth • . 2 .. In the dry fummer- of 178o, when all other fprings were either clry or much dimintfhed, thofc of Buxton and Matlock (as I was well informed on the fpot), had fuffercd no diminution; which proves that the fources of thefc warm fprings are at great depths below the furface of the earth. 3· There are numerous perpendicular fiffirres in rhe ·rocks of -Derby01ir.e, in which 1he ores of lead ancl copper are found, and which pafs to unknown depths, and might d1ence afford a palfage to (\-earn from great fubter1'aneous fires. 4· If thefe waters were heated by the decompofition of pyrites, there would be fc>me chalybeate tafl.e or fulphureous fmell in them. See note in p::ltt 1. on the ex.iHence of ccmral fires. |
