230 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA, AM) ITS METEOROLOGY 



vessel of Ms own construction. This fact as to uniformity of coin- 

 ponents appears to call for the hypothesis that sea water which to- 

 day is in one part of the ocean, will, in the process of time, be found 

 in another part the most remote. It must, therefore, be carried 

 about by cmTents ; and as these currents have their offices to per- 

 form in the terrestrial economy, they probably do not flow by 

 chance, but in obedience to physical laws ; they no doubt, there- 

 fore, assist to maintain the order and preserve the harmony which 

 characterize every department of God's handywork, and as such 

 we treat them. 



465. This hypothesis about currents is based upon our faith in 

 b^'lo^iiiinesTn'^'^^'^ ^^® physical adaptations mth which the sea is in- 

 favourof. vcstcd. Take, for example, the coral islands, reefs, 



beds, and atolls with which the Pacific Ocean is studded and gar- 

 nished. They were built up of materials which a certain kind 

 of insect quarried from the sea water. The currents of the sea 

 ministered to this little insect — they were its hod carriers. When 

 fresh supplies of solid matter were wanted for the coral rock upon 

 which the foundations of the Polynesian Islands were laid, these 

 hod carriers brought them in unfailing streams of sea water, loaded 

 with food and building materials for the coralline. The obedi- 

 ent cmTents, therefore, must thread the widest and the deepest seas, 

 for they never fail to come at the right time, nor refuse to give place 

 and go after they have ministered to the hungry creatm^e. Unless 

 the cmTents of the sea were employed to carry off from this insect 

 the waters that have been emptied by it of their lime, and to bring 

 to it others charged with more, it is evident the little creature 

 would have perished for want of food long before its task was 

 half- completed. But for currents, it would have been impaled in 

 a nook of the very drop of water in which it was brought forth ; 

 for it would have soon secreted the lime contained in this drop, 

 and then, mthout the ministering aid of currents to briag it more, 

 it would have perished for the want of food for itself and mate- 

 rials for its edifice ; and thus, but for the benign currents which 

 took this exhausted water away, there we perceive this emptied 

 drop would have remained, not only as the grave of the little archi- 

 tect, but as a monument in attestation of the shocking mon- 

 strosity that there had been a failure in the sublime system of ter- 

 restrial adaptations — that the sea had not been adapted by its 

 Creator to the well-being of aU its inhabitants. Now we do know 

 that its adaptations are suited to aU the wants of every one of its 



