THE SALTS OF THE SEA. 2G1 



whence the salts of the sea were originally derived, of course has 

 not escaped the attention of philosophers. I once thought with 

 Darwin and those other philosophers who hold that the sea 

 derived its salts originally from the washings of the rains and 

 rivers. I now question that opinion ; for, in the course of the 

 researches connected with the "Wind and Current Charts," I 

 have found evidence, from the sea and in the Bible, which seems 

 to cast doubt upon it. The account given in the first chapter of 

 Genesis, and that contained in the hieroglyphics which are traced 

 by the hand of Nature on the geological column as to %he order 

 of creation, are marvellously accordant. The Christian man of 

 science regards them both as true ; and he never overlooks the 

 fact that, while they differ in the mode and manner as well as in 

 the things they teach, yet they never conflict ; and they contain 

 no evidence going to show that the sea was ever fresh ; on the 

 contrary, they both afford circumstantial evidence sufficient for 

 the belief that the sea was salt as far back as the morning of 

 creation, or at least as the evening and the morning of the day 

 when the dry land appeared. That the rains and the rivers do 

 dissolve salts of various kinds from the rocks and soil, and empty 

 them into the sea, there is no doubt. These salts cannot be 

 evaporated, we know ; and we also know that many of the lakes, 

 as the Dead Sea, which receive rivers and have no outlet, are 

 salt. Hence the inference by some philosophers that these 

 inland water-basins received their salts wholly from the washings 

 of the soil ; and consequently the conjecture arose that the great 

 sea derived its salts from the same source and by the same pro- 

 cess. But, and per contra, though these solid ingredients cannot 

 be taken out of the sea b}" evaporation, they can be extracted by 

 other processes. We know that the insects of the sea do take 

 out a portion of them, and that the salt ponds and arms which, 

 from time to time in the geological calendar, have been separated 

 from the sea, afford an escape by which the quantity of chloride 

 of sodium in its waters — the most abundant of its solid ingredients 

 — is regulated. The insects of the sea cannot build their struc- 

 tures of this salt, for it would dissolve again, and as fast as they 

 could separate it. But here the ever-ready atmosphere comes 

 into play, and assists the insects in regulating the salts. It can- 

 not 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 off, transfers it to the clouds, and they 



