STUDY IV. 263 



The Sea was deflined to receive, by means of 

 the rivers, all the fpoils of vegetable and animal 

 producflions over the whole Earth; and as it's 

 courfe is determined toward the Line, by the daily 

 diminution of it's waters, which the Sun is there 

 continually evaporating, it's fliores, within the 

 torrid Zone, would have been quickly liable to 

 putrefadlion, had not Nature employed thefe dif- 

 ferent methods to keep them cool. It is for this 

 reafon, as certain Philofophers allege, that the Sea 

 is fait between the Tropics. But it is likewife fo 

 to the North j nay, more (o, if we may rely on 

 the recent experiments of the interefting M. tie 

 Pages. It is the falteft, and the heavieft, in the 

 World, according to the teftimony of an Englifli 

 Navigator, Captain Wood, in 1676, 



Befides, the faltnefs of the Sea does not preferve 

 it's waters from corruption, as is vulgarly believed. 

 All who have been at Sea know well, that if a 

 bottle, or a caik, is filled, in hot climates, with 

 fea-water, it foon becomes putrid. Sea-water is 

 not a pickle ; it is, on the contrary, a real lixivial, 

 which very quickly diflblves dead bodies. Though 

 fait to the tafte, it takes out fait fooner than frefli 

 water, as our common failors know, from daily 

 experience, who employ no other, in frefliening 

 their fait provifions. It blanches, on the (hore, 

 the bones of all animals, as well as the madrépores, 



s 4 which, 



