963

Observations in support of the hypothesis.

The waters circulate with constant motion from the utmost depths of the sea to the highest summits of the mountains, not obeying the nature of heavy matter; and in this case it acts as does the blood of animals which is always moving from the sea of the heart and flows to the top of their heads; and here it is that veins burst—as one may see when a vein bursts in the nose, that all the blood from below rises to the level of the burst vein. When the water rushes out of a burst vein in the earth it obeys the nature of other things heavier than the air, whence it always seeks the lowest places. [7] These waters traverse the body of the earth with infinite ramifications.

[Footnote: The greater part of this passage has been given as No. 849 in the section on Anatomy.]

Taken from The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci edited by Jean Paul Richter, 1880.

Notebooks of Leonoardo da Vinci
XVI: Physical Geography.
. . .
943,
944,
945
Refutation of Pliny’s theory as to the saltness of the sea.
946,
947
The characteristics of sea water.
948,
949
On the formation of Gulfs.
950,
951
On the encroachments of the sea on the land and vice versa.
952,
953,
954
The ebb and flow of the tide.
955,
956,
957,
958,
959,
960
Theory of the circulation of the waters.
961,
962
Observations in support of the hypothesis.
963,
964,
965,
966,
967,
968,
969
On the way in which the sources of rivers are fed.
970
The tide in estuaries.
971
confluence.
972,
973,
974
Whirlpools.
975
On the alterations in the channels of rivers.
976
The origin of the sand in rivers.
977,
978
The formation of mountains.
979,
980,
981,
982,
983
. . .