SPRING, an elastic substance of any kind, having the power of recovering, by its elasticity, its natural state, after being bent or otherwise forced, inter posed between two objects in order to impart or check motion or permit them to yield relatively to each other. Also, one of the four seasons of the year; that season in which plants begin to spring and vegetate; the vernal season. In the Northern Hemisphere the spring season begins about March 21, when the sun en ters the sign of Aries and ends about June 22, at the time of the summer sol stice. Popularly, however, spring is con sidered to begin in February or March, and end in April or As a nautical term: (1) A crack in a mast or yard, running obliquely or trans versely. (2) A rope or hawser passed from the stern of a ship and made fast to the cable on the anchor from the bow, by which she is riding. The object is to bring the broadside to bear in any direction. (3) A check on a cable while unshackling it. (4) A rope extending diagonally from the stern of one ship to the head of another, to make one ship sheer off to a greater distance.
In physical geography and geology, an overflow of water or other liquid. When
rain falls on a porous soil it is rapidly absorbed, the surface of the soil being soon dry again. Meanwhile the water has percolated downward till it has, at a greater or less depth, been intercepted by an impervious stratum, where it grad ually forms a reservoir. It then presses with great force laterally, and a system of subterranean drainage is established. If the reservoir be on an elevation and a boring be made on a lower level to any of the branches leading from it, the water will rise in the bore to the surface and shoot up into the air to a height proportional to the pressure from the reservoir, as an artesian well, which is to a spring. Springs are of two kinds, land and perennial springs, the former existing where there is a porous soil with an impervious subsoil, the lat ter deriving their waters from deeper sources. Perennial springs include ther mal springs and geysers. Sometimes springs contain much earthy material; thus there are calcareous, sulphurous and gypseous, siliceous, ferruginous, sa line, carbonated and petroleum springs. They are then called mineral springs.