132 THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA. 



driven by a current toward the land ; he casts the lead, and looks 

 anxiously out for the sea-breeze, in order to escape from what he 

 believes to be threatening danger.* The planks burn under his 

 feet ; in vain he spreads the awning to shelter himself from the 

 broiling sun. Its rays are oppressive ; repose does not refresh ; 

 motion is not agreeable. The inhabitants of the deep, awakened 

 by the clear light of day, prepare themselves for labor. Corals, 

 and thousands of Crustacea, await, perhaps impatiently, the com- 

 ing of the sea-breeze, which shall cause evaporation to take place 

 more rapidly, and thus provide them with a bountiful store of 

 building material for their picturesque and artfully constructed 

 dwellings: these they know how to paint and to polish in the 

 depths of the sea more beautifully than can be accomplished by 

 any human art. Like them, also, the plants of the sea are de- 

 pendent upon the winds, upon the clouds, and upon the sunshine; 

 for upon these depend the vapor and the rains which feed the 

 streams that bring nourishment for them into the sea.f When 

 the sun reaches the zenith, and his stern eye, with burning glare, 

 is turned more and more upon the Java Sea, the air seems to fall 

 into a magnetic sleep ; yet, even as the magnetizer exercises his 

 will upon his subject, and the latter, with uncertain and change- 

 able gestures, gradually puts himself in motion, and sleeping 

 obeys that will, so also we see the slow efforts of the sea-breeze to 

 repress the vertical movements of the air, and to obey the will 

 which calls it to the land. This vertical movement appears to be 

 not easily overcome by the horizontal which we call wind. Yon- 

 der, far out upon the sea, arises and disappears alternately a dark- 

 er tint upon the otherwise shining sea-carpet ; iinalty, that tint 

 remains and approaches ; that is the long-wished-for sea-breeze : 

 and yet it is sometimes one, yes, even two hours before the dark- 

 er tint is permanent, before the sea-breeze has regularly set in. 

 Now small white clouds begin to rise above the horizon ; to the 

 experienced seaman they are a prelude to a fresh sea-breeze. We 

 welcome the first breath from the sea ; it is cooling, but it soon 



* Especially in the rainy season the land looms very greatly ; then we see mount- 

 ains which are from 5000 to 6000 feet high at a distance of 80 or 100 English miles. 



t The archipelago of coral islands on tho north side of the Straits of Sunda is re- 

 markable. Before the salt water flowed from the Straits it was deprived of the solid 

 matter of which the Thousand Islands are constructed. A similar group of islands 

 fe found between the Straits of Macassar and Balic. — Jansen. 



