74 MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY 



from the rivers, and hand them over to the little mason 

 for the structure of the most stupendous works of solid 

 masonry that man has ever seen — the coral islands of the 

 sea". 



The contemporary reviews of Maury's "Physical 

 Geography of the Sea" gave unqualified praise to his 

 style. The Revue des Deux Mondes declared, "Often 

 indeed his powerful imagination makes of Maury a 

 veritable poet, and his descriptions recall involuntarily 

 those stories of the 'Thousand and One Nights', which 

 charmed our childhood, where Gulnare pictures for her 

 husband marvellously the mysterious realms of the 

 profundities under the sea". Humboldt considered it an 

 epoch-making book, and the French scientist Jomard 

 congratulated Maury upon the accomplishment of a 

 "work so difficult, so useful, so laborious", which he 

 regarded as a true present to physicists, geographers, 

 and navigators as well as to the commerce of all nations. 

 The Blackwood'' s Edinburgh Magazine joined in the 

 hymn of praise with the opinion that "the good that 

 Maury has done, in awakening the powers of observation 

 of the officers of the Royal and mercantile navies of 

 England and America is incalculable", and added that 

 such researches were exercising the most beneficial effect 

 in improving and elevating the minds of seamen every- 

 where. 



Some of Maury's theories, however, were early ques- 

 tioned, especially the one regarding the causes of ocean 

 currents such as the Gulf Stream. He contended that 

 they were set in motion by differences in specific gravity 

 of the water in different places as caused by a disparity 

 in temperature or in saltness. Sir John Herschel had 

 considered that the currents were due entirely to the 



