§490. THE SALTS OF THE SEA. 259 



In the clock-work of the ocean and the machinery of the nni- 

 verse, order and regularity are maintained by a system of com- 

 pensations. A celestial body, as it revolves around its sun, flies 

 off under the influence of centrifugal force ; but immediately the 

 forces of compensation begin to act ; the planet is brought back 

 to its elliptical path, and held in the orbit for which its mass, its 

 motions, and its distances were adjusted. Its compensation is per- 

 fect. So, too, with the salts and the shells of the sea in the ma- 

 chinery of the ocean ; from them are derived principles of com- 

 pensation the most perfect ; through their agency the undue ef- 

 fects of heat and cold, of storm and rain, in disturbing the equilib- 

 rium, and producing thereby currents in the sea, are compensated, 

 regulated, and controlled. The dews, the rains, and the rivers are 

 continually dissolving certain minerals of the earth, and carrying 

 them off to the sea. This is an accumulative process ; and if it 

 were not comjjensafed, the sea would finally become, as the Dead 

 Sea is, saturated with salt, and therefore unsuitable for the habi- 

 tation of many fish of the sea. The sea-shells and marine insects 

 afford the required comjoejisation. They are the conservators of 

 the ocean. As the salts are emptied into the sea, these creatures 

 secrete them again and pile them up in solid masses, to serve as 

 the bases of islands and continents, to be in the process of ages 

 upheaved into dry land, and then again dissolved by the dews 

 and rains, and washed by the rivers away into the sea again. 



490. The question as to whence the salts of the sea were orig- 

 whence does the sea inally dcrivcd, of coursc has not escaped the atten- 

 derive its salts? ^^^^^ ^f philosophcrs. I oucc thought with Darwin 

 and those other philosophers who hold that the sea derived its 

 salts originally from the washings of the rains and rivers. I now 

 question that opinion ; for, in the course of the researches con- 

 . nected with the "Wind and Current Charts," I have found evi- 

 • dence, from the sea and in the Bible, which seems to cast doubt 

 upon it. The account given in the first chapter of Genesis, and 

 that contained in the hieroglyphics which are traced by the hand 

 of Nature on the geological column as to the order of creation, 

 are marvelously accordant. The Christian man of science regards 

 them both as true ; and he never overlooks the fact that, while 

 they differ in the mode and manner as well as in the things they 

 teach, yet they never conflict ; and they contain no evidence go- 



