34 
and it was found, as might have been expected, that when the 
bottle was not broken by the pressure, it returned quite empty. 
When the sea water is distilled the evaporated fluid is, theoretically 
pure, and the salts, of course, remain in the vessel, but it is very 
nasty, from the presence of some of the more volatile acids, such 
as the hydrochloric, which pass over in the distillate It is pos- 
sible, however, to prevent this, but the apparatus for distillation, 
&c., is cumbrous, expensive, and difficult to manage at sea, and I 
believe most navies have abandoned the attempt to distil sea 
water, and content themselves with storing fresh water in iron 
tanks, which are, of course, far better and more wholesome than 
the wooden casks formerly in use. 
The reason why the sea is salt, is quite easy to understand, al- 
though curiously enough, it was not appreciated, until oe 
tively recently. 
Only last century it was thought there existed great beds and 
rocks of salt at the bottom of the sea. A moment’s reflection will 
show us that sea water must necessarily be salt. All seas are fed 
by rivers, which, in their turn derive their waters from rain which 
has evaporated from the ocean, &c. This rain, before it finds its 
way to the river beds, necessarily percolates through the earth, 
and dissolves out of it all soluble matters it meets with, which are 
chiefly of a saline character, and bears them off to the sea. So 
constantly is this going on and so large is the loss of fluid by 
evaporation from the surface, that it is wonderful the sea is not 
more highly charged than it is with saline matter. In the early 
history of our earth when her surface was still glowing with intense 
heat, the first showers which fell on the hot rocks, must, by virtue 
of their high temperature, have dissolved far more saline material 
than they do at present, and the primitive chasms and valleys 
which formed the ocean beds of chaos contained a warm fluid 
intensely salt and of a much higher specific gravity than our 
present seas. Speaking generally, the loss by evaporation is pretty 
evenly balanced by rain, and the influx of rivers; where these 
conditions do not exist, as for example, in the Mediterranean, 
which receives but few rivers, the waters tend to get more highly 
charged with salts and the specific gravity is increased. The 
fishermen of Norway, perhaps the most superstitious of Huropean 
races, still believe the saltness of the sea to be due to the magic 
mill which is for ever grinding salt at the bottom of the Atlantic. 
I daresay most of you know the story, for nearly all our fairy tales 
are founded upon the Scandinavian folk lore. Once upon a time 
there were two brothers, one rich the other poor. On Christmas 
morning the poor brother went to the rich one to beg a piece of 
bacon, as he had no food. Yes, the rich brother would give it to 
