The Mighty Deep 



should also find of common salt a supply which, 

 when weighed, would reach the great figure of 

 one hundred and seventeen millions of tons. All 

 this, be it remembered, floating unseen in a 

 single cubic mile of water. No wonder the sea 

 tastes salt. 



In its make Water is always the same. 

 Whether it be cold or hot, freezing or boiling, 

 causes no difference. It consists of two gases, 

 united ; and the union is remarkable in kind. 

 The two gases are not merely mixed together, 

 as sand and sugar may be mixed. They are 

 by the union changed into a fresh substance. 

 For the time the gases exist no longer. In 

 their stead, water has been formed. 



And when the gases enter into this very close 

 relationship, they do it always in the same 

 manner. There is just so much of the one, and 

 just so much of the other. One portion of 

 hydrogen has to join with eight times as much 

 by weight of oxygen neither more nor less of 

 either. The same is true, whether we are 

 speaking of a great mass of water, or of the 

 tiniest speck. 



It is not actually correct to say, as is said 

 above, that water " consists " of the two gases. 

 So long as the water exists, the gases do not 



14 



