§ 466. THE SALTS OF THE SEA. 239 



may make, and which, for aught we know to the contrary, does 

 make the system of oceanic circulation as complete, as perfect, 

 and as harmonious as is that of the atmosphere or the blood. 

 p]very drop of water in the sea is as obedient to law and order as 

 are the members of the heavenly host in the remotest regions of 

 space ; for when the morning stars sang together in the almighty 

 anthem, we are told "the waves also lifted up their voice" in 

 chorus ; and doubtless, therefore, the harmony in the depths of the 

 ocean is in tune with that which comes from the spheres above. 

 We can not doubt it ; for, were it not so, were there no channels 

 of circulation from one ocean to another, and if, accordingly, the 

 waters of the Atlantic were confined to the Atlantic, or if the wa- 

 ters of the arms and seas of the Atlantic were confined to those 

 arms and seas, and had no channels of circulation by which they 

 could pass out into the ocean, and traverse different latitudes and 

 climates — if this were so, then the machinery of the ocean would 

 be as incomplete as that of a watch without a balance-wheel. 



466. For instance, take the Red Sea and the Mediterranean by 

 Ditto by the Red ^^J ^^ iHustratiou. Upou the Eed Sea there is no 

 ^®*- precipitation; it is a rainless region; not a river 



runs down to it, not a brook empties into it ; therefore there is no 

 process by which the salts and washings of the earth, which are 

 taken up and held in solution by rain or river water, can be 

 brought down into the Red Sea. Its salts come from the ocean, 

 and the air takes up from it, in the process of evaporation, fresh 

 water, leaving behind, for the currents to carry away, the solid 

 matter which, as sea water, it held in solution. On the other 

 hand, numerous rivers discharge themselves into the Mediterra- 

 nean, some of which are filtered through soils and among miner- 

 als which yield one kind of salts or soluble matter, another river 

 I'uns through a limestone or volcanic region of country, and brings 

 down in solution solid matter — it may be common salt, sulphate 

 or carbonate of lime, magnesia, soda, potash, or iron — either or all 

 may be in its waters. Still, the constituents of sea water from 

 the Mediterranean and of sea water from the Red Sea are quite 

 the same. But the waters of the Dead Sea have no connection 

 with those of the ocean ; they are cut off from its channels of cir- 

 culation, and are therefore quite different, as to their components, 

 from any arm, frith, or gulf of the broad ocean. Its inhabitants 



