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210
The Fairy-Land of Science
·
Arabella B. Buckley
66
LECTURE
IV.
A
DROP
OF
WATER
ON
ITS
TRAVELS
We
are
going
to
spend
an
hour
to-day
in
following
a
drop
of
water
on
its
travels.
If
I
dip
my
finger
in
this
basin
of
water
and
lift
it
up
again,
I
bring
with
it
a
small
glistening
drop
out
of
the
body
of
water
below,
and
hold
it
before
you.
Tell
me,
have
you
any
idea
where
this
drop
has
been?
what
changes
it
has
undergone,
and
what
work
it
has
been
doing
during
all
the
long
ages
that
water
has
lain
on
the
face
of
the
earth?
It
is
a
drop
now,
but
it
was
not
so
before
I
lifted
it
out
of
the
basin;
then
it
was
part
of
a
sheet
of
water,
and
will
be
so
again
if
I
let
it
fall.
Again,
if
I
were
to
put
this
basin
on
the
stove
till
all
the
water
had
boiled
away,
where
would
my
drop
be
then?
Where
would
it
go?
What
forms
will
it
take
before
it
reappears
in
the
rain-cloud,
the
river,
or
the
sparkling
dew?
These
are
questions
we
are
going
to
try
to
answer
to-day;
and
first,
before
we
can
in
the
least
understand
how
water
travels,
we
must
call
to
mind
what
we
have
learnt
about
the
sunbeams
and
the
air.
We
must
have
clearly
pictured
in
our
imagination
those
countless
sun-waves
which
are
for
ever
crossing
space,
and
especially
those
larger
and
slower
undulations,
the
dark
heat-
waves;
for
it
is
these,
you
will
remember,
which
force
the
air-
atoms
apart
and
make
the
air
light,
and
it
is
also
these
which
are
most
busy
in
sending
water
on
its
travels.
But
not
these
alone.
The
sun-waves
might
shake
the
water-drops
as
much
as
they
liked
and
turn
them
into
invisible
vapour,
but
they
could
not
carry
them
over
the
earth
if
it
were
not
for
the
winds
and
currents
of
that
aerial
ocean
which
bears
the
vapour
on
its
bosom,
and
wafts
it
to
different
regions
of
the
world.
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