Underground Rivers - University of New Mexico

Chapter 12 -- Superterranean Metrics
stone, &c, where they form a basin or cavern, and working a passage horizontally, or a little
declining, they issue out at the sides of the mountains.
Refuting those who hold to underground rivers from the sea,
Some naturalists therefore have recourse to the sea, and derive the origin of Springs
immediately from thence. But how the sea-water should be raised up to the surface of the
earth, and even to the tops of the mountains, is a difficulty, in the solution of which they cannot
agree.
Regarding Halley's condensation caves,
Others... set aside the alembics, and think it enough that there be large subterranean reservoirs
of water at the height of the sea, from whence the warmth of the bottom of the earth, &c, may
raise vapours; which pervade not only the intervals and fissures of the strata, but the bodies of
the strata themselves, and at length arrive near the surface; where, being condensed by the
cold, they glide along on the first bed of clay they meet with, till they issue forth by some
aperture in the ground.
In support of Perrault’s rainfall-alone explanation,
The water that is supposed to ascend from the depths of the sea, or from subterranean canals
proceeding from it, through the porous parts of the earth, as it rises in capillary tubes, ascends
to no great height, and in much too small a quantity to furnish springs with water, as Perrault
has sufficiently shewn.
As they share the same surname, perhaps here we should mention the Rev. John Hutton, who
wrote on the subject a century later. The latter Hutton's A Tour to the Caves, in the Environs of
Ingle Borough and Settle, in the West-Riding of Yorkshire (1880, 1881) noted two underground
streams crossing without mixing.
The springs were entirely dependent on the rains.
Though we met with many streams below the earth; yet we could easily find they originally
descended from its surface, and not from any distillations against the sides of the caves.
Much had indeed be learned between Hutton I and Hutton II.
Over his lifetime, John Dalton (1760-1844) made over 200,000
meteorological observations, the basis of his Experiments and
Observations to Determine Whether the Quantity of Rain and Dew is
Equal to the Quantity of Water Carried off by the Rivers and Raised by
Evaporation, with an Enquiry into the Origin of Springs (1802).
After correction for missing areas, Dalton estimated the mean rainfall and
snowfall (water equivalent) for England and Wales to be 79 centimeters.
He added 13 centimeters for annual dewfall. To estimate the total river
outflow, he divided the country into catchments and from the flow of the
Thames and the relative sizes of the watersheds, obtained 33
centimeters.
Dalton monitored the long-term water balance of a soil-filled container to estimate 76 centimeters
for the annual evapotranspiration loss.
79 centimeters of rain and snow
+ 13 centimeters of dew
92 centimeters of inflow
33 centimeters of streamflow
+ 76 centimeters of evaporation
109 centimeters of outflow
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