The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci

Page 954

How the river Po, in a short time might dry up the Adriatic sea in
the same way as it has dried up a large part of Lombardy.

The ebb and flow of the tide (955-960).

Page 953

That the shores of the sea constantly acquire more soil towards the
middle of the sea; that the rocks and promontories of the sea are
constantly being ruined and worn away; that the Mediterranean seas
will in time discover their bottom to the air, and all that will be
left will be the channel of the greatest river that enters it; and
this will run to the ocean and pour its waters into that with those
of all the rivers that are its tributaries.

Page 952

OF WAVES.

A wave of the sea always breaks in front of its base, and that
portion of the crest will then be lowest which before was highest.

[Footnote: The page of FRANCESCO DI GIORGIO'S _Trattato_, on which
Leonardo has written this remark, contains some notes on the
construction of dams, harbours &c.]

Page 951

HERE THE REASON IS GIVEN OF THE EFFECTS PRODUCED BY THE WATERS IN
THE ABOVE MENTIONED PLACE.

All the lakes and all the gulfs of the sea and all inland seas are
due to rivers which distribute their waters into them, and from
impediments in their downfall into the Mediterranean --which divides
Africa from Europe and Europe from Asia by means of the Nile and the
Don which pour their waters into it. It is asked what impediment is
great enough to stop the course of the waters which do not reach the
ocean.

On the encroachments of the sea on the land and vice versa
(952-954).

Page 950

All inland seas and the gulfs of those seas, are made by rivers
which flow into the sea.

Page 949

THAT THE OCEAN DOES NOT PENETRATE UNDER THE EARTH.

The ocean does not penetrate under the earth, and this we learn from
the many and various springs of fresh water which, in many parts of
the ocean make their way up from the bottom to the surface. The same
thing is farther proved by wells dug beyond the distance of a mile
from the said ocean, which fill with fresh water; and this happens
because the fresh water is lighter than salt water and consequently
more penetrating.

Which weighs most, water when frozen or when not frozen?

FRESH WATER PENETRATES MORE AGAINST SALT WATER THAN SALT WATER
AGAINST FRESH WATER.

That fresh water penetrates more against salt water, than salt water
against fresh is proved by a thin cloth dry and old, hanging with
the two opposite ends equally low in the two different waters, the
surfaces of which are at an equal level; and it will then be seen
how much higher the fresh water will rise in this piece of linen
than the salt; by so much is the fresh lighter than the salt.

On the formation of Gulfs (950. 951).

Page 948

The waters of the salt sea are fresh at the greatest depths.

Page 947

For the third and last reason we will say that salt is in all
created things; and this we learn from water passed over the ashes
and cinders of burnt things; and the urine of every animal, and the
superfluities issuing from their bodies, and the earth into which
all things are converted by corruption.

But,--to put it better,--given that the world is everlasting, it
must be admitted that its population will also be eternal; hence the
human species has eternally been and would be consumers of salt; and
if all the mass of the earth were to be turned into salt, it would
not suffice for all human food [Footnote 27: That is, on the
supposition that salt, once consumed, disappears for ever.]; whence
we are forced to admit, either that the species of salt must be
everlasting like the world, or that it dies and is born again like
the men who devour it. But as experience teaches us that it does not
die, as is evident by fire, which does not consume it, and by water
which becomes salt in proportion to the quantity dissolved in
it,--and when it is evaporated the salt always remains in the
original quantity--it must pass through the bodies of men either in
the urine or the sweat or other excretions where it is found again;
and as much salt is thus got rid of as is carried every year into
towns; therefore salt is dug in places where there is urine.-- Sea
hogs and sea winds are salt.

We will say that the rains which penetrate the earth are what is
under the foundations of cities with their inhabitants, and are what
restore through the internal passages of the earth the saltness
taken from the sea; and that the change in the place of the sea,
which has been over all the mountains, caused it to be left there in
the mines found in those mountains, &c.

The characteristics of sea water (948. 949).

Page 946

WHY WATER IS SALT.

Pliny says in his second book, chapter 103, that the water of the
sea is salt because the heat of the sun dries up the moisture and
drinks it up; and this gives to the wide stretching sea the savour
of salt. But this cannot be admitted, because if the saltness of the
sea were caused by the heat of the sun, there can be no doubt that
lakes, pools and marshes would be so much the more salt, as their
waters have less motion and are of less depth; but experience shows
us, on the contrary, that these lakes have their waters quite free
from salt. Again it is stated by Pliny in the same chapter that this
saltness might originate, because all the sweet and subtle portions
which the heat attracts easily being taken away, the more bitter and
coarser part will remain, and thus the water on the surface is
fresher than at the bottom [Footnote 22: Compare No. 948.]; but this
is contradicted by the same reason given above, which is, that the
same thing would happen in marshes and other waters, which are dried
up by the heat. Again, it has been said that the saltness of the sea
is the sweat of the earth; to this it may be answered that all the
springs of water which penetrate through the earth, would then be
salt. But the conclusion is, that the saltness of the sea must
proceed from the many springs of water which, as they penetrate into
the earth, find mines of salt and these they dissolve in part, and
carry with them to the ocean and the other seas, whence the clouds,
the begetters of rivers, never carry it up. And the sea would be
salter in our times than ever it was at any time; and if the
adversary were to say that in infinite time the sea would dry up or
congeal into salt, to this I answer that this salt is restored to
the earth by the setting free of that part of the earth which rises
out of the sea with the salt it has acquired, and the rivers return
it to the earth under the sea.

[Footnote: See PLINY, Hist. Nat. II, CIII [C]. _Itaque Solis ardore
siccatur liquor: et hoc esse masculum sidus accepimus, torrens
cuncta sorbensque._ (cp. CIV.) _Sic mari late patenti saporem
incoqui salis, aut quia exhausto inde dulci tenuique, quod facillime
trahat vis ignea, omne asperius crassiusque linquatur: ideo summa
aequorum aqua dulciorem profundam; hanc esse veriorem causam, quam
quod mare terrae sudor sit aeternus: aut quia plurimum ex arido
misceatur illi vapore: aut quia terrae natura sicut medicatas aquas
inficiat_ ... (cp. CV): _altissimum mare XV. stadiorum Fabianus
tradit. Alii n Ponto coadverso Coraxorum gentis (vocant B Ponti)
trecentis fere a continenti stadiis immensam altitudinem maris
tradunt, vadis nunquam repertis._ (cp. CVI [CIII]) _Mirabilius id
faciunt aquae dulces, juxta mare, ut fistulis emicantes. Nam nec
aquarum natura a miraculis cessat. Dulces mari invehuntur, leviores
haud dubie. Ideo et marinae, quarum natura gravior, magis invecta
sustinent. Quaedam vero et dulces inter se supermeant alias._]

Page 945

have flowed from the summits of the mountains of Armenia, it must be
believed that all the water of the ocean has passed very many times
through these mouths. And do you not believe that the Nile must have
sent more water into the sea than at present exists of all the
element of water? Undoubtedly, yes. And if all this water had fallen
away from this body of the earth, this terrestrial machine would
long since have been without water. Whence we may conclude that the
water goes from the rivers to the sea, and from the sea to the
rivers, thus constantly circulating and returning, and that all the
sea and the rivers have passed through the mouth of the Nile an
infinite number of times [Footnote: _Moti Armeni, Ermini_ in the
original, in M. RAVAISSON'S transcript _"monti ernini [le loro
ruine?]"_. He renders this _"Le Tigre et l'Euphrate se sont deverses
par les sommets des montagnes [avec leurs eaux destructives?] on
pent cro're" &c. Leonardo always writes _Ermini, Erminia_, for
_Armeni, Armenia_ (Arabic: _Irminiah_). M. RAVAISSON also deviates
from the original in his translation of the following passage: "_Or
tu ne crois pas que le Nil ait mis plus d'eau dans la mer qu'il n'y
en a a present dans tout l'element de l'eau. Il est certain que si
cette eau etait tombee_" &c.]

II.

ON THE OCEAN.

Refutation of Pliny's theory as to the saltness of the sea (946.
947).

Page 944

THE OPINION OF SOME PERSONS WHO SAY THAT THE WATER OF SOME SEAS IS
HIGHER THAN THE HIGHEST SUMMITS OF MOUNTAINS; AND NEVERTHELESS THE
WATER WAS FORCED UP TO THESE SUMMITS.

Water would not move from place to place if it were not that it
seeks the lowest level and by a natural consequence it never can
return to a height like that of the place where it first on issuing
from the mountain came to light. And that portion of the sea which,
in your vain imagining, you say was so high that it flowed over the
summits of the high mountains, for so many centuries would be
swallowed up and poured out again through the issue from these
mountains. You can well imagine that all the time that Tigris and
Euphrates

Page 943

OF CERTAIN PERSONS WHO SAY THE WATERS WERE HIGHER THAN THE DRY LAND.

Certainly I wonder not a little at the common opinion which is
contrary to truth, but held by the universal consent of the judgment
of men. And this is that all are agreed that the surface of the sea
is higher than the highest peaks of the mountains; and they allege
many vain and childish reasons, against which I will allege only one
simple and short reason; We see plainly that if we could remove the
shores of the sea, it would invest the whole earth and make it a
perfect sphere. Now, consider how much earth would be carried away
to enable the waves of the sea to cover the world; therefore that
which would be carried away must be higher than the sea-shore.

Page 942

OF THE SEA, WHICH TO MANY FOOLS APPEARS TO BE HIGHER THAN THE EARTH
WHICH FORMS ITS SHORE.

_b d_ is a plain through which a river flows to the sea; this plain
ends at the sea, and since in fact the dry land that is uncovered is
not perfectly level--for, if it were, the river would have no
motion--as the river does move, this place is a slope rather than a
plain; hence this plain _d b_ so ends where the sphere of water
begins that if it were extended in a continuous line to _b a_ it
would go down beneath the sea, whence it follows that the sea _a c
b_ looks higher than the dry land.

Obviously no portions of dry land left uncovered by water can ever
be lower than the surface of the watery sphere.

Page 941

OF THE HEAT THAT IS IN THE WORLD.

Where there is life there is heat, and where vital heat is, there is
movement of vapour. This is proved, inasmuch as we see that the
element of fire by its heat always draws to itself damp vapours and
thick mists as opaque clouds, which it raises from seas as well as
lakes and rivers and damp valleys; and these being drawn by degrees
as far as the cold region, the first portion stops, because heat and
moisture cannot exist with cold and dryness; and where the first
portion stops the rest settle, and thus one portion after another
being added, thick and dark clouds are formed. They are often wafted
about and borne by the winds from one region to another, where by
their density they become so heavy that they fall in thick rain; and
if the heat of the sun is added to the power of the element of fire,
the clouds are drawn up higher still and find a greater degree of
cold, in which they form ice and fall in storms of hail. Now the
same heat which holds up so great a weight of water as is seen to
rain from the clouds, draws them from below upwards, from the foot
of the mountains, and leads and holds them within the summits of the
mountains, and these, finding some fissure, issue continuously and
cause rivers.

The relative height of the surface of the sea to that of the land
(942-945).

Page 940

PROVES HOW THE EARTH IS NOT GLOBULAR AND NOT BEING GLOBULAR CANNOT
HAVE A COMMON CENTRE.

We see the Nile come from Southern regions and traverse various
provinces, running towards the North for a distance of 3000 miles
and flow into the Mediterranean by the shores of Egypt; and if we
will give to this a fall of ten braccia a mile, as is usually
allowed to the course of rivers in general, we shall find that the
Nile must have its mouth ten miles lower than its source. Again, we
see the Rhine, the Rhone and the Danube starting from the German
parts, almost the centre of Europe, and having a course one to the
East, the other to the North, and the last to Southern seas. And if
you consider all this you will see that the plains of Europe in
their aggregate are much higher than the high peaks of the maritime
mountains; think then how much their tops must be above the sea
shores.

Theory of the elevation of water within the mountains.

Page 939

THE FIGURES OF THE ELEMENTS.

Of the figures of the elements; and first as against those who deny
the opinions of Plato, and who say that if the elements include one
another in the forms attributed to them by Plato they would cause a
vacuum one within the other. I say it is not true, and I here prove
it, but first I desire to propound some conclusions. It is not
necessary that the elements which include each other should be of
corresponding magnitude in all the parts, of that which includes and
of that which is included. We see that the sphere of the waters
varies conspicuously in mass from the surface to the bottom, and
that, far from investing the earth when that was in the form of a
cube that is of 8 angles as Plato will have it, that it invests the
earth which has innumerable angles of rock covered by the water and
various prominences and concavities, and yet no vacuum is generated
between the earth and water; again, the air invests the sphere of
waters together with the mountains and valleys, which rise above
that sphere, and no vacuum remains between the earth and the air, so
that any one who says a vacuum is generated, speaks foolishly.

But to Plato I would reply that the surface of the figures which
according to him the elements would have, could not exist.

That the flow of rivers proves the slope of the land.