HIS PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA 73 



water. The currents of the sea ministered to this little 

 insect — they were its hod carriers. When fresh supplies 

 of solid matter were wanted for the coral rock upon which 

 the foundations of the Polynesian Islands were laid, 

 those hod carriers brought them in unfailing streams of 

 sea water, loaded with food and building materials for 

 the coralline. The obedient currents thread the widest 

 and deepest seas. They never fail to come at the right 

 time, nor refuse to go; for, unless the currents of the sea 

 were employed to carry off from this insect the waters 

 that have been emptied by it of their lime, and to bring 

 to it others charged with more, it is evident the little 

 creature would have perished for want of food long before 

 its task was half completed. But for currents, it would 

 have been impaled in a nook of the very drop of water 

 in which it was spawned ; for it would soon have secreted 

 the lime contained in this drop of water, and then, 

 without the ministering aid of currents to bring it more, 

 it would have perished for the want of food for itself and 

 materials for its edifice; and thus, but for the benign 

 currents which took this exhausted water away, there 

 we perceive this emptied drop would have remained, not 

 only as the grave of the little architect, but as a monu- 

 ment in attestation of the shocking monstrosity that 

 there had been a failure in the sublime system of ter- 

 restrial adaptations — ^that the sea had not been adapted 

 by its Creator to the well-being of all its inhabitants. 

 Now we do know that its adaptations are suited to all the 

 wants of every one of its inhabitants — to the wants of 

 the coral insect as well as to those of the whale. Hence 

 we say we know that the sea has its system of circulation, 

 for it transports materials for the coral rock from one 

 part of the world to another; its currents receive them 



