WHETHER WATER RISES FROM THE SEA TO THE TOPS OF MOUNTAINS.

The water of the ocean cannot make its way from the bases to the
tops of the mountains which bound it, but only so much rises as the
dryness of the mountain attracts. And if, on the contrary, the rain,
which penetrates from the summit of the mountain to the base, which
is the boundary of the sea, descends and softens the slope opposite
to the said mountain and constantly draws the water, like a syphon
[Footnote 11: Cicognola, Syphon. See Vol. I, Pl. XXIV, No. 1.] which
pours through its longest side, it must be this which draws up the
water of the sea; thus if _s n_ were the surface of the sea, and the
rain descends from the top of the mountain _a_ to _n_ on one side,
and on the other sides it descends from _a_ to _m_, without a doubt
this would occur after the manner of distilling through felt, or as
happens through the tubes called syphons [Footnote 17: Cicognola,
Syphon. See Vol. I, Pl. XXIV, No. 1.]. And at all times the water
which has softened the mountain, by the great rain which runs down
the two opposite sides, would constantly attract the rain _a n_, on
its longest side together with the water from the sea, if that side
of the mountain _a m_ were longer than the other _a n_; but this
cannot be, because no part of the earth which is not submerged by
the ocean can be lower than that ocean.