258 PHYSICAL GEOGEAPHY OF THE SEA, AXD ITS METEOROLOGY. 



prevented. But again, if the eyaporating surface were to grow 

 Salter and Salter, ^vlience would the winds derive vapour duly to 

 replenish the earth mth showers; for the Salter the surface, the 

 more scanty the evaporation. Here is compensation, again, the 

 most exquisite ; and we perceive how, hy reason of the salts of the 

 sea, di'ought and flood, if not prevented, may be, and probably are, 

 regulated and controlled ; for that compensation which assists to 

 regulate the amount of evaporation is sm^ely 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 mnds with 

 moistm^e for the cloud and the rain, remain at its surface, and be- 

 come more niggardly in their supplies, and finally 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 the gentle trade-mnds coming from the sea in 

 fitful blasts of parched, and thirsty, and blighting air. But sea 

 salts, with their manifold and marvellous 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 thnsty trade-'s^inds, and are carried down, because of their 

 weight, into the depths of the ocean ; and thus the mnds are 

 dieted with vapour in due and wholesome quantities." — Mauey's 

 SaiUngi Biredions, 7th ed., p. 862. 



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

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

 the ocean. ^^i^^ ^^ j^Y\Q sca, 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 to- 

 gether into one jolace, and pronounced his handiwork " good," 

 some check or regulator had already been jirovided for the one as 

 well as the other — checks which should keep the sea up to its office, 

 preventing it from grovdng, in the process of ages, either larger or 

 smaller, fr-esher or Salter. As we go doTMi into the depths of the 

 sea, we find that we are just beginning to penetrate the chambers 

 of its hidden things, and to comj^rehend its wonders. The heart 

 of man was never rightly attuned to the music of the spheres until 

 he w^as permitted to stand mth his eye at the telescope, and then, 

 for the first time, the song of the morning, stars burst upon him in 

 all its glory. And so it is wiih. the harmonies of old Ocean when 



