THE IMPENETRABLE SEA 



ranges may not seem to have any practical significance. 

 Does it matter to us in our daily lives whether tides in 

 various parts of the world rise only a few feet or to great 

 heights? 



The answer is that even today, before man has har- 

 nessed the power of the tides to any extent, the world's 

 commerce is considerably affected by tidal ranges. 



Vessels of all nations are dependent on the power of 

 the moon to enable them to enter their harbours, for it 

 raises the water for them to cross the harbour bars or 

 dangerous shallows. And so it is wherever industry and 

 shipping have partially harnessed the power of the sea : 

 the rising and falling tides are important factors. 



Only a very small part of the sea's enormous power is 

 at present being utilized by man. It is available to him 

 in countless ways, and he is beginning to realize its 

 potentialities, even as he is beginning to harness the 

 world's rivers. Tidal power is already being tapped in 

 many countries. But the power in the world's ocean 

 currents still runs to waste. A single fact can help us to 

 appreciate the volume of that power. The world's strong- 

 est ocean currents are those in the Saltfjord, Norway, 

 where they race at nearly nineteen and a half miles an 

 hour. It does not require much imagination to picture 

 the benefits which could be enjoyed by mankind if only a 

 fraction of the power of the ocean's currents could be 

 harnessed. 



Man is turning to the peaceful use of atomic energy, 

 realizing that it can eventually produce power so cheaply 

 that the lives of millions can be transformed by it. 

 Coincidentally with the application of atomic power to 

 industrial and domestic uses, men in many nations are 

 devising schemes for using the sun's energy, and — 

 increasingly — the power stored in the world's rivers and 

 waterfalls, and in the sea itself 



We of this generation are therefore watching the incep- 

 tion of a strange partnership — an alliance between the 



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