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Romans, and a triumphal arch called the "gate of Hannibal." The town has considerable trade in grain, wine, raisins, leather, and horses. Under the Romans Spoletium was a flourishing town of the province of Umbria. Hannibal was repulsed under its walls. After the fall of the western empire it fell into the power of the Goths, was taken from them by Narses, subsequently became the capital of a Lombard duchy, and in the 13th century was annexed to the Papal dominions. It was sacked by Frederic Barbarossa, and again destroyed by the Perugians in 1324. Napoleon I. made it the capital of the department of Trasimène. It has suffered much from earthquakes.

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SPONDEE (Gr. σTоvềŋ, a libation), a poetical foot of 2 long syllables. Verses exclusively spondaic have a slow movement, and consequent solemnity; such were sung by the Greeks on sacrificial occasions, and when a libation was offered, and hence the name. The spondee is used in any part of the English heroic line, but with the best effect in the first and last places. SPONGE, the familiar name of the family of spongiada or porifera, a division of animals of the so called class protozoa. It has long been a disputed point whether sponges are animals or vegetables; in the "Principles of Zoology,' by Agassiz and Gould (1848), they are said to belong to the vegetable kingdom; the most recent authorities, as Johnston and Bowerbank, decide in favor of their animal nature. Whatever may be the decision of this question, the common sponge (spongia, Linn.) may be taken as the type. These consist of a soft gelatinous mass, porous and elastic, supported on a fibro-corneous skeleton which anastomoses in all directions, and without silicious or calcareous spicula; they have no organs nor vessels, are capable of absorbing great quantities of fluid which is given out again on pressure, insensible to all kinds of irritation, and incapable of contraction or locomotion. The apparently homogeneous jelly which fills the pores of the living sponge and covers its surface, is seen under the microscope to be filled with numerous transparent spherical granules. There is a gradual passage from the soft sponges of commerce to those of stiff and compact texture, with the fibres loaded with silicious spicula, crumbling easily when dry, and useless in the arts; others are rather of a felted character, usually grayish white, and loaded with variously shaped spicula of carbonate of lime. Sponges vary much in form, and are fixed by a kind of root at the base, or incrust other bodies, growing mostly in groups; most are marine, but spongilla (Lam.) grows in fresh water; they often possess brilliant colors. Rounded orifices of large size, or oscula, are scattered over the surface of most sponges, which lead into sinuous canals permeating the substance in every direction; water is continually absorbed by the pores of the sponge, penetrating and filling every part, and, having supplied air and food, is driven out through the oscula; the currents

are kept up principally by the action of minute vibratile cilia, assisted, according to Dutrochet, by the act of endosmosis. Sponges are propagated sometimes by ciliated gemmules, yellowish and oval, arising from the organic mucus, and carried out of the substance by the currents; they are mostly formed in the spring, and, after swimming freely about for some time, become fixed and grow. They also produce internal, unciliated, oviform bodies, resembling winter ova, which, when thrown out, swell, burst, and give issue to the locomotive germs within; they are said also to grow by division, or growth of detached portions of the parent body; they are believed to be nourished by minute algae drawn within their pores. Some live in shallow, others in very deep water; scarce and small in cold latitudes, they increase in size and number toward the tropics, being most abundant in the Australian seas. The sponges of commerce are procured chiefly in the Mediterranean and the Bahama islands; they are obtained mostly by diving, to which persons are trained from childhood in the Greek islands; the adhesion is generally firm to the bottom, and the growth slow; the lime is removed by soaking in dilute muriatic acid, and they are then bleached and beaten for market. To bleach sponges, the finest and softest are selected, washed several times in water, and immersed in very dilute hydrochloric acid to dissolve out the calcareous matters; having been again washed, they are placed in another bath of dilute hydrochloric acid to which 6 per cent. of hyposulphite of soda dissolved in a little warm water has been added; the sponge is left in this bath 24 hours, or until it is bleached as white as Smyrna is the chief place for the export of fine sponges. The coarse sponges used for horses and carriages, &c., are obtained chiefly from the Bahamas; when taken from the water they have a sickish, disagreeable odor, which soon becomes putrefactive and disgusting, like decomposing animal rather than vegetable matter; they are first buried in dry sand, and when decomposition has ceased are exposed in wire cages to the action of the tide for purification. According to Dr. Bowerbank, there are 24 genera of sponges on the shores of Great Britain. While spongia is the type of the corneous sponges, thethys (Cuv.) and Grantia (Flem.) are types of the silicious and calcareous sponges respectively. (See PROtozoa.) SPONSOR. See GODFATHERS AND GODMOTHERS.

SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION. COMBUSTION, SPONTANEous.

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SPONTINI, GASPARO, an Italian composer, born in Jesi, in the Papal States, Nov. 17, 1778, died in Majolati, near Jesi, Jan. 14, 1851. He studied under Padre Martini at Bologna, and at 13 became a pupil of the conservatory La Pieta at Naples. At 17 he composed his first opera, I puntigli delle donne, which met with a decided success; and 9 years later he

repaired to Paris, where were produced at the French opera his 3 most celebrated works, La Vestale (1807), Fernand Cortès (1809), and Olympie (1819). The first of these enjoyed the greatest reputation, and among the French Spontini was in his prime ranked as the equal of Rossini. Subsequently he was for a long time director of the opera at Berlin; but in the latter part of his life, passed partly in Italy and partly in Paris, he composed little.

gated, 2 by 14 inches, white, sprinkled all over with bright rufous spots, forming a ring near the large end; they breed and are commonly seen in flocks. The flesh is oily and poor eating; the beautiful feathers of the wing are made into fans in Florida, those from a single bird being worth at St. Augustine from $1 to $1.50. The European spoonbill (P. leucorodia, Linn.) is about the same size, of a white color, with reddish yellow patch on breast, pale yellow naked space around eyes and throat, and a yellowish white, long occipital crest; it is rare in England, but common in Holland and the southern portions of the continent and all over Africa. This curious genus has affinities with the cormorants and pelicans in the dilatable and bare gular membrane, with the curlews and herons in the alimentary canal, and with the sandpipers in the shape of the sternum; the trachea divides before entering the chest.-The shoveller duck (spatula clypeata, Boie) is also called spoonbill.

SPOONBILL, the common name of the wading birds of the family plataleida, characterized by a much depressed bill, very broad, and dilated at the end in the shape of a rounded spoon. In the genus platalea (Linn.) the bill is long, straight, thin, slightly bent downward at the tip, the mandibles in close opposition and the edges not lamellar; nostrils basal and in the lateral groove; wings long, 2d quill the longest; tail short; legs longer than in the typical waders, tibia bare for nearly one half; tarsi not much longer than middle toe, covered with small hexagonal scales; toes SPOŘADES (Gr., the scattered), the lesser webbed at the base, the outer longer than the islands of the Grecian archipelago surrounding inner, the middle not pectinated, and the hind the group of the Cyclades, divided into the one only partly resting on the ground; claws northern, western, and eastern Sporades. The short and obtuse. There are about a half northern group includes the islands of Skidozen species, found in all quarters of the atho (anc. Sciathus), Skopelo (Scopelos), Skyro globe, migrating to warm climates at the ap- (Scyros), and Kilidromi (Halonesus); these lie proach of winter; they frequent marshy inlets off the N. E. coast of Negropont or Euboea, of the sea, and the borders of lakes and rivers, and belong to the kingdom of Greece. The wading about in search of fish fry, worms, western group, which also belongs to Greece, frogs, and aquatic insects; they can swim, lies off the E. coast of Argolis, and includes and even dive, if necessary for escape; the Hydra (Hydrea), Spezzia (Tiparenus), Poros nest is made either on trees or among rushes (Sphæria), Ægina, and Koluri (Salamis). The in swampy places, and composed of coarse eastern group belongs to Turkey, and lies off sticks; the eggs are 2 to 4, whitish. The the S. W. coast of Anatolia; it includes Psara roseate spoonbill (P. ajaja, Linn.) is about 30 or Ipsara (Psyra), Scio (Chios), Samos, Nicaria inches long, and 4 feet in alar extent; the (Icarus or Icaria), Patmos, Lero (Leros), Kabill is 7 inches, and covered with a soft skin; lymna (Calymna), Stanko (Cos), Stampalia the head is of moderate size, bare, the skin (Astypalea), Anaphe, Skarpanto (Carpathus), yellowish green; the neck long and slender, and Kaso (Casus). The Sporades of the anand the body compact and muscular. The cients included only the eastern group, and this prevailing color is rosy red, paler in front, and with the exception of the northernmost islands. nearly white on the neck; lesser wing coverts, upper and lower tail coverts, and lower part of throat, bright carmine; tail feathers ochrey yellow; the young have the head feathered, the carmine tint wanting, and the tail rosy. It is found in the southern Atlantic and gulf states, and is so abundant in the breeding season at Indian river, Florida, that one person has been known to kill 60 in a day; it does not go above North Carolina, nor far from the sea; being very sensitive to cold, it is most abundant in the gulf states. They are essentially nocturnal, though they often feed by day when the tide suits; they are fond of the company of herons; they fly with the neck and legs extended, and rise rapidly to a great height; they alight easily on trees, and can walk on the large branches. The breeding time in the Florida keys begins in February, the young being out of the nest by April 1; the nest is usually in the top of a mangrove, coarsely made; the eggs are commonly 3, elon

SPOTSWOOD, JOHN, a Scottish prelate, born in Edinburghshire in 1565, died in London, Nov. 26, 1639. He was graduated at the university of Glasgow at the age of 16, and at 20 was appointed to succeed his father in Calder kirk. At first strenuous in his opposition to episcopacy, even drawing up, or at least revising, according to Calderwood, in 1597, the defence for refusing to subscribe the bond demanded of the clergy by the king, it was not long before he began to side with the court party, and to favor a moderate episcopacy. In 1603 he was one of 5 clergymen selected by James I. to accompany him to London for his coronation, and while there was appointed to succeed Beatoun as archbishop of Glasgow. He used henceforward his best exertions for the establishment of episcopacy in Scotland, and, though not given to violent measures, incurred much odium among the great body of the Scottish people. In 1609 he was appointed an extraordinary lord of session, but until 1610

was obliged to remain subject to the ordinary church courts. In 1610 he and two other Scottish bishops received episcopal ordination at the hands of English bishops, and soon after he was appointed head of one of the courts of high commission for trying offences against the church. He became primate of all Scotland in 1615, and the two courts of high commission were consolidated under his presidency. Under instructions from James I., though it is alleged contrary to his own wishes, he introduced the forms, services, appurtenances, and substantially the liturgy of the English church. In 1633 he placed the crown on the head of Charles I. as king of Scotland. He was appointed in 1635 lord high chancellor of Scotland. In consequence of the indignation aroused by the imposition of a book of canons and a new liturgy on the people, by order of the king, Spotswood in 1637 retired to Newcastle, and finally to London. He wrote a "History of the Church of Scotland, from the Year 203 to the Close of the Reign of James VI." (fol., London, 1655), and one or two smaller works. SPOTTED FEVER (typhus petechialis, typhus syncopalis, or typhus gravior), an epidemic fever which prevailed in New England, New York, and Pennsylvania from 1807 to 1815. Medical writers now generally consider it as a form of malignant typhus, taking on, as epidemics of typhus are apt to do, certain peculiar characteristics, and possibly modified somewhat by the treatment adopted by some of the leading physicians. It is said to have appeared first in Medfield, Mass., in March, 1806, and a year later in the Connecticut valley and along the Hoosic and Green mountain ranges; it disappeared usually during the summer, but recurred for several years, with annually increasing violence, from January to April. It was most prevalent and fatal in 1812 and 1813. Its last appearance was at Berwick, Me., in 1815. The name spotted fever is inappropriate, if intended to indicate a fever distinct from the severe or malignant typhus, for the presence of both a red rash and of purple spots in that disease is one of its most marked symptoms; but the specific differences between this epidemic and ordinary typhus were said to be the time of year when it was most prevalent, spring instead of autumn; its avoidance of large towns, prevailing rather in thinly settled districts; its attacking more generally healthy and robust adults, rather than the weak, the young, or aged, and those of broken constitutions; and its stubborn resistance to the ordinary modes of treatment. It was very fatal, especially in the scattered population of villages, in which many heads of families were taken. In the latter part of its course it was very generally combined with local inflammations, particularly of the lungs or throat, but the symptoms of prostration which led to the name “sinking typhus," often applied to it, were even more strongly marked than in its earlier history.—The treatment of this epi

demic led to a radical and bitter division in the medical profession. One party used stimulants very freely, avoiding bloodletting, and using from the commencement cinchona, brandy, opium, the tinctures of cinnamon, peppermint, lavender, &c., and these not so much with reference to the quantities given as the effects produced. Cathartics and emetics were used by this class of practitioners sparingly if at all, and cold water and other diluents sternly prohibited. In the use of this treatment they asserted that they were more successful than their opponents, and though the recoveries which took place were slow, they deemed them sure. The physicians who discarded this mode of treatment argued that the disease was at first a congestion, and that bleeding, either general or local, was necessary to relieve this, and if practised would be followed by less prostration and a more speedy recovery. This view gained prevalence after the appearance of the local inflammations in connection with the fever. The antiphlogistic physicians, as they were called, generally preferred local bleeding by leeches or cups to general; they administered calomel and mild cathartics and emetics, and after a time sustained the strength by the use of vegetable and mineral tonics. The mortality under either mode of treatment was very great, and neither had much cause to boast over the other. For many years subsequently the community as well as the physicians, especially in New England, were divided into two hostile parties, the stimulants and the antiphlogistics; and the controversy has hardly yet completely ceased.-The most noteworthy works on the epidemic were Miner and Tully's "Essays on Fevers and other Subjects" (1823); Miner, "Typhus Syncopalis" (1825); North and Strong on แ Spotted Fever;" report of a committee of the Massachusetts medical society in its "Transactions," vol. ii.; Gallup on the "Epidemics of Vermont;" and Hale on the "Spotted Fever in Gardiner."

SPOTTSYLVANIA, an E. co. of Va., bounded N. E. by the Rappahannock and S. É. by the North Anna river, and drained by the Mattapony; area, 400 sq. m.; pop. in 1860, 16,076, of whom 7,786 were slaves. The surface is hilly and the soil fertile. Granite and freestone are abundant. The productions in 1850 were 102,953 bushels of wheat, 265,753 of Indian corn, 47,437 of oats, 1,279 tons of hay, and 52,056 lbs. of butter. There were 3 newspaper offices, 20 churches, and 761 pupils attending schools. The Richmond and Fredericsburg railroad and the Rappahannock canal intersect the county. The value of real estate in 1856 was $3,661,265, showing an increase of 23 per cent. since 1850. Capital, Spottsylvania Court House.

SPRAGUE, CHARLES, an American poet, born in Boston, Oct. 25, 1791. At the age of 13 he entered a mercantile house as clerk, and subsequently was taken into partnership by his

employers. In 1820 he became teller in the State bank; and in 1825, on the establishment of the Globe bank, he was appointed its cashier, an office which he still holds. In 1821 he became known as a poet by being the successful competitor for the prize offered for the best prologue at the opening of the Park theatre in New York. Similar successes were won by him in 1822, at the opening of the new Philadelphia theatre; in 1828, at the opening of the Salem theatre; in the same year, at the opening of another theatre in Philadelphia; and in 1830 at the opening of the Portsmouth theatre. In 1823 he obtained the prize offered for the best ode to be recited at the exhibition at the Boston theatre of a pageant in honor of Shakespeare; and in 1830 he pronounced an ode at the centennial celebration of the settlement of Boston. In 1829 he delivered a poem on "Curiosity," in the heroic measure, before the Phi Beta Kappa society in Cambridge, considered his best production. On the 4th of July, 1825, he pronounced the usual commemorative discourse before the citizens of Boston; and in 1827 he gave an address on intemperance. A new and revised edition of Mr. Sprague's writings was published in Boston in 1850.

SPRAGUE, WILLIAM BUEL, D.D., an American clergyman and author, born in Andover, Conn., Oct. 16, 1795. He was graduated at Yale college in 1815, and for nearly a year thereafter was a private tutor in the family of Major Lawrence Lewis, a nephew of Gen. Washington, who resided on a part of the original Mount Vernon plantation. He afterward studied for 3 years in the theological seminary at Princeton; and in Aug. 1819, he was ordained pastor of the Presbyterian church at West Springfield, Mass., as a colleague of the Rev. Joseph Lathrop, D.D. Here he continued 10 years, and on Aug. 26, 1829, was installed pastor of the second Presbyterian church in Albany, where he still remains. He visited Europe in 1828, and again in 1836. The degree of D.D. was conferred upon him by Columbia college in 1828, and by Harvard college in 1848. Dr. Sprague published in 1822 a volume of "Letters to a Daughter," which, being issued anonymously, was soon after published in Great Britain, and then republished in America as an English book. His subsequent works are: "Letters from Europe" (12mo., 1825); "Lectures to Young People" (1825); "Lectures on Revivals of Religion" (8vo., 1832); "Hints on Christian Intercourse" (1834); "Lectures illustrating the Contrast between true Christianity and various other Systems" (1837); ( "Memoir of Edward D. Griffin, D.D.," as an introduction to the volumes of sermons of that distinguished divine (1839); "Life of Timothy Dwight, D.D., President of Yale College," in Sparks's "American Biography" (1845); “Aids to Early Religion" (1847); "Words to a Young Man's Conscience" (1848); "Letters to Young Men, founded on the History of Joseph” (1854); "Visits to European Celebrities" (1855); and

"Annals of the American Pulpit," a collection of biographies of leading clergymen of all the denominations, which has reached 7 vols. 8vo. (1857-'61), and 2 more remain to be published. Of the books above named, nearly all have passed through several editions. He has written introductory essays to many works, contributed much to periodicals, and published also about 140 occasional sermons, addresses, &c.

SPRAT, a small fish of the herring family, and genus harengula (Val.). There are teeth on the jaws, tongue, palate, and pterygoid bones, but none on the vomer; the branchiostegal rays are 6 or 7. There are about 10 species, of which the most common is the English sprat (H. sprattus, Val.), called garvie in Scotland; it is 5 or 6 inches long, with the body proportionally deeper than in the herring, and the edge of the abdomen strongly serrated; the scales are large, round, and deciduous; the upper part of head and back dark blue, with green reflections, passing into silvery white on the gill covers, sides, and 'abdomen; dorsal and caudal dusky, other fins white. It is found on the coasts of Great Britain and Sweden, and in the English channel and North sea; it ascends the rivers in large shoals in November, after the herrings have disappeared. Though smaller and not commercially so important as the herring, it furnishes in the winter an abundant, cheap, and wholesome food, and is generally eaten fresh. The fishery is prosecuted by drift or stationary nets, and with most success in dark and foggy nights; it employs about 500 boats, which capture many thousand tons in some seasons; the excess is sold at 10 to 12 cents a bushel for manure, the farmers using about 40 bushels to an acre of land. The blanquette of the French coasts (H. latulus, Val.) is 3 to 4 inches long, of a brilliant silvery white, tinged with greenish on the back; the flesh is dry, but sweet; they live a long time out of water. Several species in the West Indian seas are called sardines..

SPRAT, THOMAS, an English prelate and author, born in Tallaton, Devonshire, in 1636, died at Bromley, Kent, May 30, 1713. He was educated at Wadham college, Oxford, and after the restoration entered holy orders, and became chaplain first to the duke of Buckingham, and afterward to Charles II. He was one of the original fellows of the royal society. In 1668 he was made prebendary of Westminster, in 1680 canon of Windsor, in 1683 dean of Westminster, and in 1684 bishop of Rochester. He was clerk of the closet to James II., in 1685 was made dean of the chapel royal, and in 1686 one of the commissioners for ecclesiastical affairs. On the abdication of James, Sprat was one of those who, in the convention held on that occasion, proposed the appointment of a regent. An unsuccessful attempt was made in 1692 to implicate the bishop in a pretended plot to restore King James. He published "The Plague of Athens" and "The Death of Oliver Cromwell," poems (1659); "The His

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tory of the Royal Society" (1677); "The History of the Rye House Plot" (1685); and a volume of sermons; and he edited Cowley's "Poems," with a life (1679).

SPRENGEL, KURT, a German physician and botanist, born at Boldekow, Pomerania, Aug. 3, 1766, died March 15, 1833. In 1784 he began at Halle the study of theology and medicine, but relinquished the former study, and took his medical degree in 1787. In 1789 he was appointed extraordinary professor of medicine in Halle, in 1795 ordinary professor in the same department, and in 1797 professor of botany, in which position he passed the remainder of his life. Sprengel's first work, Anleitung zur Botanik für Frauenzimmer, was published when he was but 14 years old; and his subsequent medical and botanical works procured for him honorary diplomas from upward of 70 learned societies, and invitations to fill various important professorships.

SPRENGER, ALOYS, a German orientalist, born at Nassereut, Tyrol, Sept. 3, 1813. After having studied medicine, natural sciences, and oriental languages at the university of Vienna, he went in 1836 to London, where he assisted the earl of Munster in his work on the "Military Science of the Mohammedan Nations." On the recommendation of Munster before his death, he received an appointment in the East India service, and in 1845 became president of the college of Delhi. In 1850 he was appointed examiner at the college of Fort William, interpreter of the government, and secretary of the Asiatic society of Bengal. He has published several editions of oriental writers, several works in the Urdu dialect, and a "Life of Mohammed" (vol. i., Allahabad, 1851). In 1859 the academy of inscriptions at Paris divided between Sprenger, Noeldeke, and Amari a prize for the best history of the Koran. He has engaged upon a new biography of Mohammed, in the German language, to be completed in 4 volumes, the first of which appeared in 1861.

SPRING, a current of water flowing out of the ground. Springs are produced from the water that falls upon the earth, and percolates through the soil, gathering in little rills, the "fountain heads of lakes and rivers underground." These find their way to the surface at lower levels, often at great distances from the localities that received the supplies from the atmosphere, and exhibit in their flow and the qualities of their waters a variety of interesting phenomena, some of which have already been considered in the articles ARTESIAN WELLS, GEYSERS, and MINERAL WATERS. From the times of earliest history, springs or wells of water have been objects of special regard. The wells in the vicinity of eastern towns and cities, and in the pasture lands, were resorted to by the women to draw water for domestic uses and for watering their flocks. The same custom there prevailed when Isaac met Rebekah at the well of Haran, and again when, 2,000 years afterward, it is alluded to

in the account of the woman of Samaria. Everywhere springs are suggestive of fertility, and even where they abound some among them are resorted to for the peculiar purity and refreshing coolness of their waters. Those of the same vicinity, supplied through different strata and from different sources, vary materially in their qualities. Some, forced up through beds of clean sand, are filtered of all impurities, though their source may be in dense swamps filled with decaying vegetable matters. Some, flowing to the surface through strata of limestone, though clear and apparently pure, contain so much calcareous matter in solution, that the water is characterized by that quality termed hardness; while others but a few yards distant, coming out through sandstone rocks, are eminently soft and pure. The phenomenon of hot and cold springs in close proximity has often been noticed since the time of Homer, who ascribed the source of the Scamander to two neighboring fountains of this character. A singular phenomenon relating to springs, observed by Prof. Brocklesby of Hartford, Conn., is their rising a little while before rain. Upon the summit of a high hill in the W. part of Rutland, Vt., is a spring which is almost always thus affected, sometimes two days before the rain appears; and another of similar character is said to exist in Concord, Mass. Prof. Brocklesby supposes the phenomenon is due to a diminished atmospheric pressure, which would also be indicated by a fall of the barometer. For the height of the spring at any time is determined by the relative force exerted by the atmosphere to keep the water down, and by the hydrostatic pressure to lift it up; and the channels and sources of supply of some springs may be so formed that the effect of diminished atmospheric pressure may The disthus be very sensibly indicated. charge of springs is often so uniform through periods of drought as well as of rain, that it is evident they must be connected with reservoirs beneath the surface too extensive to be affected by ordinary irregularities of supply; and there may well be such reservoirs of water when those of rock oil, as described in the article PETROLEUM, are sufficient to maintain continual supplies of this fluid for thousands of years. Such springs, called perennial, gush forth sometimes in large currents as well as in little rivulets, and rivers thus originate from the continuation of great subterranean currents. Instances of this kind are most common in limestone regions. It is this rock in which the great caves of the earth are usually found, and a common feature in these is a river large enough sometimes to be navigated by boats. In the Nicojack cave, Dade co., Ga., near the Tennessee river, there is said to be a waterfall 3 miles underground. As the rivers leave the caverns, and flow over the surface, they occasionally fall into other chasms and disappear, coming out again in great springs, it may be several miles off. Sometimes it happens that

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