§ 389. CURRENTS OF THE SEA. I37 



soil, which is heavier than Admiral Smyth's deep sea water, to 

 the depth of more than two hundred feet* below the top of the 

 bar which obstructs its entrance into the sea. Could not the 

 same power which scoops out this solid matter for the Mississippi 

 draw the brine up from the pool in the Mediterranean, and pass 

 it out across the barrier in the Straits? The currents which run 

 over the bars and shoals in our rivers are fed from the pools above 

 with water which we know comes from depths far below the top 

 of such bars. The breadth of the river where the bar is may be 

 the same as its breadth where the deep pool is, yet the current in 

 the pool may be so sluggish as scarcely to be perceptible, while it 

 may dash over the bar or down the rapids with mill-tail velocity. 

 Were the brine not drawn out again from the hollow places in 

 the sea, it would be easy to prove that this indraught into the 

 Mediterranean has taken, even during the period assigned by Sir 

 Charles to the formation of the Delta of the Mississippi — one of 

 the newest formations — salt enough to fill up the whole basin of 

 the Mediterranean with crystals. Admiral Smyth brought up 

 bottom with his briny sample of deep-sea water (six hundred and 

 seventy fathoms), but no salt crystals. 



889. The galLmt admiral — appearing to withhold his assent 

 Views of Admini both from Dr. Wollaston in his conclusions as to 



Smyth and Sir C. 



Lyeii. 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 it is not necessary to call in the 

 supposition of a brine spring to account for this heavy specimen. 

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

 ter from the great pools and basins of the sea can never ascend to 

 cross the ridges which form these pools and basins, then the har- 

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

 never existed. Every particle of water 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 Mississippi is continually shifting its course in the great alluvial plain, 

 cutting frequently to the depth of one hundred, and even sometimes to the depth of 

 two hundred and fifty feet." — Lyell, p. 273. 



