§ 497. THE SALTS OF THE SEA. 267 



may regard all the objects of the salts of the sea as maiyi objects. 

 But we see in the professor's experiments the dawn of more new 

 beauties, and the appearance of other exquisite compensations, 

 which, in studying the ' wonders of the deep,' we have so often 

 paused to contemplate and admire. As the trade-wind region 

 feeds the air with the vapor of fresh water, the process of evapo- 

 ration from the sea is checked, for the water which remains, being 

 Salter, parts with its vapor less readily ; and thus, by the salts of 

 the sea, floods may be prevented. But again, if the evaporating 

 surface were to grow Salter and Salter, whence would the winds 

 derive vapor duly to replenish the earth with showers ; for the 

 Salter the surface, the more scanty the evaporation. Here is com- 

 pensation, again, the most exquisite ; and we perceive how, by 

 reason of the salts of the sea, drought and flood, if not prevented, 

 may be, and probably are, regulated and controlled ; for that com- 

 pensation which assists to regulate the amount of evaporation is 

 surely concerned in adjusting also the quantity of rain. Were 

 the salts of the sea lighter instead of heavier than the water, they 

 would, as they feed the winds with moisture for the cloud and the 

 rain, remain at its surface, and become more niggardly in their sup- 

 plies, and finall}" the winds would howl over the salt-covered sea 

 in very emptiness, and instead of cool and refreshing sea-breezes to 

 fan the invalid and nourish the plants, we should have our gentle 

 trade-winds coming from the sea in frightful blasts of parched, and 

 thirsty, and blighting air. But sea salts, with their manifold and 

 marvelous adaptations, come in here as a counterpoise, and, as the 

 waters attain a certain degree of saltness, they become too heavy 

 to remain longer in contact with the thirsty trade-winds, and are 

 carried down, because of their weight, into the depths of the ocean ; 

 and thus the winds are dieted with vapor in due and wholesome 

 quantities." — Maury's Sailing Directions^ 7th ed., p. 862. 



497. Since the ofiices which, in the operations of the physical 

 The harmonies of the machinery of the earth, have been assigned to the 

 '^^^'^' salts of the sea, are obviously so important and 



manifold, it is fair FOR us to presume that, as for the firmament 

 above, so with that below, the principles of conservation were in 

 the beginning provided for each alike, for the world in the sky and 

 the drop in the sea ; that when the Creator gathered the waters 

 together into one place, and pronounced his handiwork '' GOOD,^' 



