CHAP. XV.

Of Lakes, Ponds, and Moraffes or Bogs.

PROPOSITION I.

Definition.

LAKE is a Collection of Waters contained in fome Cavity in an inland Place, of a large Extent, and every where furrounded with Land, having no Communication with the Ocean. PONDS are little Lakes, which neither receive nor emit Rivers. Some Geographers, or learned Men, may perhaps define them otherwife, but it is no great Matter; we shall not ftand to argue about Words: what we have done is to the beft of our Judgment.

A Morafs, or Bog, is an inland standing Water, having Earth raised and appearing above it here and there, or even Earth, or Mud, mixed with it.

PROPOSITION II.

Lakes are of four Kinds.

1. SOME neither receive nor fend forth Rivers; and if fuch are fmall, we call them Ponds; but if large, and of a vast Extent, they acquire

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the Name of Lakes. but receive none.

2. Some again emit Rivers, 3. Others receive Rivers, but have no Evacuation. 4. Others again, both receive and emit Rivers: of these fome emit more Water than they receive, fome lefs, and others an Equality. Again fome fend out their Rivers almoft in a ftreight Line with thofe they receive, others discharge them other Ways, or towards other Points. Likewife fome receive more Rivers than they send out, others not fo many, and fome an equal Number.

PROPOSITION III.

To explain the Origin, and Continuance, of those Lakes that neither receive nor emit Rivers,

SOME of these are large, others of a moderate bignefs, and fome but small. Of the two laft fome are always full of Water; others are dried up in Summer, and when it is conftantly fair Weather; both thefe Sorts are called Ponds. As to thofe that are dried up, it is eafy to fhew their Origin, viz. abundance of Rain, which gathers and stagnates in fome Cavity, or depreffed Place. For if any Pit be fituated in the middle of a defcending Ground, the Rain-Water every way drains thither, and makes a Pond.

THERE are feveral fuch Ponds as these in India, made by the Industry of the Natives, of which fome are a Mile, and fome two in Circuit; they are furrounded with a stone-Wall, and are filled in the rainy Months, to fupply the Inhabitants, in the dry Seafons, who live a great Way from Springs or Rivers.

IN like manner Pools or Ponds are made by the Inundation of the Sea, or the Overflowing of the Rivers.

THUS

THUS the Nile and the Niger, the one watering Negroland, the other Egypt, when they overflow their Banks and are decreased, they leave their Water in feveral Ponds; which the Inhabitants fence and fortify to preferve the Water 'till fuch times as they have occafion for it. By this means in Muscovy, Finland, and Lapland, in the Spring, Summer, and Autumn, they have many little Lakes, which are generated partly by the Rains, and partly by the melting of the Ice and Snow. BUT tho' fome of thefe Ponds may happen to be dried up in Summer, or when it hath not rained for a long Time; yet we are not thence to conclude, that they are wholly fupplied with Rain-Water; for they may be dried up, tho' there are Sources, or Springs, in the Bottom, which perhaps, are fo little that the Heat of the Sun, in Summer, diffipates the Water, and turns it into Vapour.

AS to thofe that admit no Rivers, and yet are not dried up, they may wholly proceed from Rain if their Chanels are deep and capacious, and in which fo much Rain-Water may be contained, that the Heat of the Sun cannot confume the whole before more Rain fall to replenish them; tho' it is very likely, that many of these are supplied by Sources under Ground, which continually emit as much Water as is exhaled; especially thofe Lakes that are found upon the Summits of Mountains, as upon Bruterus, Cenis, &c. Some of them have perhaps been left, at firft, by an Inundation, and are continually fupplied and kept up by Rain-Water: And we need not doubt but that thofe Salt-Water Lakes, or Ponds, that are found near the Sea, were made at firft by the Inundation, or Immiffion, of the Sea-Water, fome way or other; as the Lake of Harlem, and others in Holland. There are alfo feveral falt Lakes in Peru.

THERE

THERE is but a small number of these Lakes to be found. Some little ones are observed in Mufcovy and Finland, the Lake Locafda in [Epirus,] the Lake Bufaranda, in Amafia; one in Carniola, called the Zirchnitzer Sea; a round one in China; another called Hila in Cochin-China; one in Zanbaga in Africa; two in Mexico, in America, the one of them feven Leagues long, and the other near as big. All these are but fmall ones, except that in China, which is of a moderate Bignefs.

BUT the only one great Lake in the whole Earth of this fort is the Lake Parime in America, lying directly under the Equator. It is in length from Eaft to Weft, about three hundred and five German Miles, and, in the broadeft Place, one hundred Miles over, or thereabouts; fo that it may be compared with, if it do not exceed, any Lake in the World for magnitude; yet it neither receives, nor emits any Rivers. It may reasonably be doubted how this Lake was produced, whether by fome former Inundation of the Ocean, or by fubterraneous Springs and Sources? And whether it is fed and kept up by Rain-Water, or the like? It seems probable that there are Springs in the Bottom which fupply it with as much Water as is daily evaporated by the Heat of the Sun. For Lakes feem to have the fame Origin as Rivers, only they differ in the Situation of their Springs, and the quantity of their fpringing Water. For if a Spring be furrounded with rifing Ground, and run into a deep, and broad Chanel, and alfo fend forth but a fmall quantity of Water, it doth not run, but is evaporated as faft as it fprings. There is no Difference therefore, in the main, between Springs, Lakes, and Rivers, only in fome Circumftances; and there are found feveral Springs which do not emit Water; but fuch are more properly called Wells.

PRO

PROPOSITION IV.

To explain the Origin and Supply of fuch Lakes as emit Rivers but receive none.

THERE is an infinite Number of thefe Lakes, and very many Rivers flow from fuch, as out of Cifterns; efpecially thofe that have their Rife in Mufcovy, Finland, Lapland, &c. where their Springs being fituated low in the middle of a hollow Place, firft fill the Cavity and make it a Lake, which being not capacious enough to hold all the Water, it overflows the adjacent Places and forms a River. And we need not doubt but fuch Lakes have their Rife and Maintenance from Springs at the Bottom, whether they be real Fountains, or apparent ones, viz. Water brought thither by fubterraneous Paffages from fome other Places; which last is more likely in fome Lakes that immediately produce vaft Rivers.

OF fuch fmall Lakes as thefe there are, as I faid before, a great Number; as the Wolga at the Head of the River Wolga; the Lake Odium, at the Head of the Tanais; the Adac, from whence one of the Branches of the River Tigris flows; the Ozero [or White Lake] in Muscovy, that gives Source to the River Shackfna, which is poured into the Wolga, and many more little ones; we fhall here only reckon fome of the larger fort that are more remarkable.

1. THE great Lake Chaamay in the Latitude of thirty one Degrees North, not far from India, to the eastward of the River Ganges. Out of this Lake flow four very large Rivers, which water and fertilize the Countries of Siam, Pegu, &c. viz. the Menan, the Afa, the Caipoumo, and the Laquia.

Some,