THE SEA AND THE ATMOSPHEEE. 15 



carried over falls or down rapids, are transported from river to sea, 

 and delivered by the obedient waters to each insect and to every 

 plant in the ocean at the right time and temperatm-e, in proper form, 

 and in due quantity. 



41. Tjreating the rocks less gently, it grinds them into dust, or 

 Its marvellous pouuds tlicm into sand, or rolls and rubs them until 

 powers. ii^Qj ^YQ fashioucd into pebbles, rubble, or boulders : 

 the sand and shingle on the sea-shore are monuments of the 

 abrading, tritm'ating power of water. By water the soil has been 

 brought down from the hills and spread out into valleys, plains, and 

 fields for man's use. Saving the rocks on wliich the everlasting hills 

 are established, everything on the smface of om^ planet seems to have 

 been removed from its original foimdation and lodged in its present 

 j)lace by water. Protean in shape, benignant in office, water, whether 

 fi^esh or salt, solid, fluid, or gaseous, is marvellous in its powers. 



42. It is one of the chief agents in the manifold workshops in 

 It caters on land for wliicli aiid by vfhich the earth has been made a 

 insects of the sea. habitation fit for man. Circulating in veins below 

 the surface, it ]:)ervades the solid crust of the earth in the fulfil- 

 ment of its offices ; passing under the mountains, it runs among 

 the hills and down through the valleys in search of pabulum for 

 the moving creatures that have life in the sea. In rivers and in 

 rain it gathers up by ceaseless lixiviation food for the creatures 

 that wait upon it. It carries off from the land whatever of sohd 

 matter the sea in its economy requires. 



43. The waters which dash against the shore, which the run- 

 Leaching, ning streams pom* into the flood, or mth v/hich the 



tides and cui'rents scour the bottom of their chamiel ways, have 

 soaked from the soil, or leached out of the disintegrated materials 

 which strew the beach or line the shores, portions of every sol- 

 uble ingi'edient knov^m in nature. Thus impregTiated, the laugh- 

 ing, dancing waters come dovv^i fi'om the mountams, tm-ning 

 wheels, dri\ang machineiy, and serving the manifold purposes 

 of man. At last they find their way into the sea, and so make 

 the lye of the earth brine for the ocean. 



44. Iron, hme, silver, sulphur, and copper, silex, soda, magnesia. 

 Solid ingredients, potash, chloriiie, iodiuo, bromine, ammonia, are all 



found in sea-water ; some of them in quantities too minute for the 

 nicest appliances of the best chemists to detect, but which, never- 

 theless, are elaborated therefrom ])y physical processes the most 

 exquisite. 



