2G2 rHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA, AND ITS METEOROLOGY. 



deliver it back to the sea as fresh water; leaving the salts it 

 contained in a solid state behind. These are operations that 

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

 is continually before our eyes; for the "J^^^i'^^^ water" of our 

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

 plains, Albion's chalky cliffs, and the coral islands of the sea, 

 are monuments 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. Their antiquity. — There is no proof, nor is there any 

 reason for the belief, that the sea is growing salter or fresher. 

 Hence we infer that the operations of addition and extraction ai-e 

 reciprocal and equal ; that the effect of rains and rivers in wash- 

 ing 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 deposited any of its fossil shells and infusorial re- 

 mains 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 was such a time, it 

 must have been when the rivers were collecting and pouring 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 with its testimony on the other. Ac- 

 cording 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 moving 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 wonderful foi 

 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 constitute in 

 their myriads of multitudes one of the " wonders of the deep." 



492. Insects of the sea— their abundance. — It is the custom of 

 Captain Foster, of the American ship Garrick, who is one of 

 my most patient of observers, to amuse himself by making 

 drawings in his abstract log of the curious animalculae which. 



