252 PHYSICAL GEOaRAPHY OF THE SEA, AND ITS METEOROLOGY. 



the sea cannot build their structures of this salt, for it ^vould dissolve 

 again, and as fast as they could separate it. But here the ever- 

 ready atmosphere comes into play, and assists the insects in regu- 

 lating the salts. It cannot take them up from the sea, it is true, 

 but it can take the sea away from them ; for it pumps up the 

 water from these pools that have been barred ofi, transfers it to the 

 clouds, and they deliver it back to the sea as fresh water, leaving 

 the salts it contained in a solid state behind. These are operations 

 that have been going on for ages ; proof that they are still going 

 on is continually before our eyes ; for the " hard water " of our 

 fountains, the marl-banks of the valleys, the salt-beds of the plains, 

 Albion's chalky cliflfe, and the coral islands of the sea, are monu- 

 ments in attestation. These masses of solid matter have been 

 secreted from the sea waters ; they express the ability of these 

 creatures to prevent the accumulation of salts in the sea. 



491. There is no proof, nor is there any reason for the belief, 

 Their antiquity, that the sca is gTowiug saltcT OT frcshcr. Hence 

 we infer that the operations of addition and extraction are re- 

 ciprocal and equal ; that the eflPect of rains and rivers in washing 

 down is compensated by the processes of evaporation and secretion 

 in taking out. If the sea derived its salts originally from the 

 rivers, the geological records of the past would show that river beds 

 were scored out in the crust of our planet before the sea had de- 

 posited any of its fossil shells and infusorial remains upon it. If, 

 therefore, we admit the Darwin theory, we must also admit that 

 there was a period when the sea was without salt, and consequently 

 without shells or animals either of the silicious or calcareous kind. 

 If ever there were such a time, it must have been when the rivers 

 were collecting and pom-ing in the salts which now make the brine 

 of the ocean. But while the palaeontological records of the earth, 

 on one hand, afford no evidence of any such fresh-water period, the 

 Mosaic account is far from being negative ^vith its testimony on the 

 other. According to it, we infer that the sea was salt as early, at 

 least, as the fifth day, for it was on that day of creation that the 

 waters were commanded to "bring forth abundantly the mo\dng 

 creature that hath life." It is in obedience to that command that 

 the sea now teems with organisms ; and it is marvellous how 

 abundantly the obedient waters do bring forth, and how won- 

 derful for variety as well as multitude their progeny is. All 

 who pause to look are astonished to see how the prolific ocean 

 teems and swarms with life. The moving creatures in the sea 



