Possessed of this fact, he was enabled to explain a phenomenon which all persons who have been accustomed to the observation of Nature must have frequently witnessed, although it had never yet been philosophically explained, nor even fully discussed, viz.--the formation of mists over the beds of rivers and lakes, in calm and clear weather, after sunset. Sir Humphry Davy thinks that whoever has considered the phenomena in relation to the radiation and communication of heat and nature of vapour, since the publication of the researches of MM. Rumford, Leslie, Dalton, and Wells, can scarcely have failed to discover their true causes. "As soon as the sun has disappeared from any part of the globe, the surface begins to lose heat by radiation, and in greater proportions as the sky is clearer; but the land and water are cooled by this operation in a very different manner: the impression of cooling on the land is limited to the surface, and very slowly transmitted to the interior; whereas in water above 45° Fah., as soon as the upper stratum is cooled, whether by radiation or evaporation, it sinks in the mass of fluid, and its place is supplied by warmer water from below, and till the temperature of the whole mass is reduced nearly to 40°, the surface cannot be the coolest part.[62] It follows, therefore, that wherever water exists in considerable masses, and has a temperature nearly equal to that of the land, or only a few degrees below it, and above 45° at sunset, its surface during the night, in calm and clear weather, will be warmer than that of the contiguous land; and the air above the land will necessarily be colder than that above the water; and when they both contain their due proportion of aqueous vapour, and the situation of the ground is such as to permit the cold air from the land to mix with the warmer air above the water, mist or fog will be the result; which will be so much the greater in quantity, as the land surrounding or inclosing the water is higher, the water deeper, and the temperature of the water, which will coincide with the quantity or strength of vapour in the air above it, greater." [62] Water, when cooled down to 40°, expands in volume, and thus becomes specifically lighter; and therefore at that temperature remains at the surface.