our Jowetts and our Stanleys, not to mention other "brave men, who see more clearly the character and magnitude of the coming struggle; and who believe undoubtingly that out of it the truths of science will emerge with healing in their wings. Such men must increase, if the vast material resources of the Church of England are not to fall into the hands of persons who may be classed under the respective heads of weak and infatuated.
And now I have to utter a "farewell," free from bitterness, to all my readers—thanking my friends for a sympathy more steadfast, I would fain believe, if less noisy, than the antipathy of my foes; commending to these, moreover, a passage from Bishop Butler, which they have either not read or failed to take to heart. "It seems," saith the bishop, "that men would be strangely headstrong and self-willed, and disposed to exert themselves with an impetuosity which would render society insupportable, and the living in it impracticable, were it not for some acquired moderation and self-government, some aptitude and readiness in restraining themselves, and concealing their sense of things." In this respect, at least, his grace the Archbishop of Canterbury has set a good example.
| WATER-SUPPLY OF ISLANDS. |
By FRANKLIN C. HILL.
ON islands of considerable size and height, composed of rocks and various earthy beds, springs of fresh water in the valleys are not uncommon, and their presence excites no remark. The rainfall of the island itself is laid up in its strata exactly as in the hills of the main-land, and the small size of the reservoir is made up for by the frequent rains and fogs to which islands are subject.
There are cases of islands near the main-land where springs are fed by streams from the continent following the rock-strata below the dividing straits. But on islands composed as many of those on our Southern coasts are, of pure sand and of very small elevation, and hence with no raised reservoir to supply springs, the fact that pure fresh water may be obtained in large quantities by digging, is a mystery even to many well-informed people, although the explanation is very simple. To say that the "sea-water filters through the sand into these wells and becomes as sweet and pure as spring-water," is simply to display profound ignorance of chemistry and facts.
From time immemorial the ash-leach has been in use in many civilized, that is, soap-making, countries. Essentially an ash-leach is a vessel tight enough to hold wood-ashes, but not tight enough to hold water. Being first filled with ashes, water is then poured in gradually,
