§ 450-452. THE SPECIFIC GRAVITY OF THE SEA, ETC. 227 



450. The heaviest water in the sea, uncorrected for the temper- 

 The heaviest water, aturc, as shown bj the obscrvations before ns, is 

 1.028. This water was found {Figs. 1 and 2) off Cape Horn. 

 Let us examine a little more closely into the circumstances con- 

 nected with the heaviest water on our side of the equator. It was 

 a specimen of water from the Sea of Okotsk, which is a sea in a 

 riverless region, and one where evaporation is probably in excess 

 of precipitation — thus fulfilling the physical conditions for heavy 

 water. The Ked Sea is in a riverless and rainless region. Its 

 waters ought to be heavier than those of any other mere arm of 

 the ocean, and the dynamical force arising from the increase of 

 specific gravity acquired by its waters after they enter it at Babel- 

 mandeb is sufficient to keep up a powerful inner and outer cur> 

 rent through those straits. At the ordinary meeting of the Bom- 

 bay Geographical Society for ISTovember, 1857, the learned secre- 

 tary stated that recent observations then in his possession, and 

 which were made by Mr. Eitchie and Dr. Giraud (§ 881), go to 

 show that the saltest water in the Red Sea is where theory (§ 377) 

 makes it, viz., in the Gulf of Suez ; and that its waters become 

 less and less salt thence to its mouth, and even beyond, till you 

 approach the meridian of Socotra ; after which the saltness again 

 increases as you approach Bombay. 



451. Its waters, from the mouth of the straits for 800 or 400 

 Chapman's experi- i^il^s up, havc bccu fouud as high in temperature 

 "'^''*'- as 95° Fahrenheit — a sea at blood heat ! The ex- 

 periments of Professor Chapman, of Canada, which indicated as 

 law — the Salter the water the slower the evaporation, seem to sug- 

 gest an explanation of this, at least in part. Evaporation ought 

 to assist in keeping the surface of intertropical seas cool in the 

 same way that it helps to cool other wet surfaces. And if the 

 waters of the Red Sea become so salt that they can not make va- 

 por enough to carry off the excessive heat of the solar ray, we 

 may be sure that nature has provided means for carrying it off. 

 But for the escape which these highly heated waters are, by means 

 of their saltness, enabled to make from that sea, its climate, as 

 well as the heat of its waters, would be more burning and blast- 

 ing than the sands of Sahara. Even as it is, the waters of this sea 

 are hotter than the air of the desert. 



452. There is another indication which this little instrument 



