14 



THE MUSEUM. 



the entrance to the dock from warping 

 up, and at Cleethorpes on the same 

 coast, you may walk for hours upon 

 the beach, at low water, upon an im- 

 mense accumulation of matter thrown 

 up by the sea. The Dogger bank on 

 the coast of Northumberland, which is 

 now used as the northern fishing 

 ground, is an immense bank of sand 

 extending for upwards of three hun- 

 dred miles, and the charts of our Mer- 

 cantile Marines will show scores of 

 similar accumulations in different parts 

 of the sea. 



The water which is now in the ocean 

 and in the river has been many times 

 in the sky. The history of a single 

 drop taken out of a glass of water on 

 your table is really a romantic one. 

 No traveller has ever accomplished 

 such distances in his life. That par- 

 ticle may have reflected the palm trees 

 of coral islands, and has caught the 

 sun-ray in the arch that spans a cloud 

 clearing away from the valleys of 

 Cumberland or California. It may 

 have been carried by the Gulf Stream 

 from the shores of Florida and Cuba, 

 to be turned into a crystal of ice be- 

 side the precipices of Spitzbergen. It 

 may have hovered over the streets of 

 London, and have formed part of a 

 murky fog, and have glistened on the 

 young grass-blade ot April in Irish 

 fields. It has been lifted up to heaven 

 and sailed in great wool-pack clouds 

 across the sky, forming part of a cloud- 

 mountain echoing with thunder. It 

 has hung in a fleecy veil many miles 

 above the earth at the close of long 

 seasons of still weather. It has de- 

 scended many times over its showers 

 to refresh the earth and has sparkled 

 and bubbled in mossy fountains in 

 every country in Europe. And it has 



returned to its native skies, having ac- 

 complished its purpose, to be stored 

 once again with electricity to give it 

 new life-producing qualities and equip 

 it as heaven's messenger to earth once 

 more. 



A writer in Longman s Magazine 

 says: The Mississippi has in the 

 course of ages transported from the 

 mountains and high land within its 

 drainage area sufficient material to 

 make 4oo,tioo square miles of new 

 land by filling up an estuary which ex- 

 tended from its original outfall to the 

 Gulf of Mexico for a length of 500 

 miles and in width from 30 to 40 

 miles. This jiver is still pouring solid 

 matter into the Gulf, where it is spread 

 out in a fanlike shape over a coast line 

 of 362,000,000 tons a year, or six 

 times as much soil as was removed in 

 the construction of the Manchester 

 ship canal, and sufficient to make a 

 square mile of new land, allowing for 

 its having to fill up the Gulf to a depth 

 of eighty yards. Some idea of the 

 vastness of this operation may be con- 

 ceived when the fact is considered that 

 some of this soil has to be transported 

 more than 300O miles; and that if the 

 whole of it had to be carried in boats 

 at the lowest rate at which heavy ma- 

 terial is carried on the inland waters 

 of America, or, say for one-tenlli of a 

 penny per ton per mile over an aver- 

 age of half the total distance, the cost 

 would be no less a sum than £"238,- 

 000,000 a year. Through ihe vast 

 delta thus formed the river winds its 

 way, twisting and turning byQinnumer- 

 able bends until it extends its length 

 to nearly 1200 miles, or more than 

 double the point-to-point length of 

 the delta, continually eroding the 

 banks in one place and building up 



