CURRENTS OF THE SEA. I35 



crystals. Admiral Smyth brought up bottom with his briny sam- 

 ple of deep sea water (six hundred and seventy fathoms), but no 

 salt crystals. 



The gallant admiral — appearing to withhold his assent both from 

 Dr. Wollaston in his conclusions as to this under current, and 

 from the geologist in his inferences as to the effect of the barrier 

 in the Straits — suggests the probability that, in sounding for the 

 heavy specimen of sea water, he struck a brine spring. But the 

 specimen, according to analysis, was of sea water, and how did a 

 brine spring of sea w^ater get under the sea but through the proc- 

 ess of evaporation on the surface, or by parting with a portion of 

 its fresh water in some other way ? 



If we admit the principle assumed by Sir Charles Lyell, that 

 water from the great pools and basins of the sea can never ascend 

 to cross the ridges which form these pools and basins, then the 

 harmonies of the sea are gone, and we are forced to conclude they 

 never existed. Every particle of w^ater that sinks below a sub- 

 marine ridge is, ipso facto, by his reasoning, stricken from , the 

 channels of circulation, to become thenceforward forever motion- 

 less matter. The consequence would be " cold obstruction" in 

 the depths of the sea, and a system of circulation between differ- 

 ent seas of the waters only that float above the shoalest reefs and 

 barriers. I do not believe in the existence of any such imperfect 

 terrestrial mechanism, or in any such failures of design. To my 

 mind, the proofs — the theoretical proofs — the proofs derived ex- 

 clusively from reason and analogy — are as clear in favor of this 

 under current from the Mediterranean as they were in favor of 

 the existence of Leverrier's planet before it was seen through the 

 telescope at Berlin. 



Now suppose, as Sir Charles Lyell maintains, that none of these 

 vast quantities of salt which this surface current takes into the 

 Mediterranean find their way out again. It would not be difficult 

 to show, even to the satisfaction of that eminent geologist, that 

 this indraught conveys salt away from the Atlantic faster than all 

 the/re5/i-water rivers empty fresh supplies of salt into the ocean. 

 Now, besides this drain, vast quantities of salts are extracted from 

 sea water for madrepores, coral reefs, shell banks, and marl beds ; 

 and by such reasoning as this, which is perfectly sound and good, 

 we estabhsh the existence of this under current, or else we are 



