THE OCEAN AS TUB RESERVOIR OF HEALTH 3 



inexplicable in an island folk like our own, who can 

 never get more than a hundred miles away from the 

 shores laved by the ministering sea. 



These, however, are but general statements, and I 

 hope now to come to some particulars of the ocean's 

 wonderful duties, which shall familiarize some, at least, 

 with its work for them, and cause them to remember 

 their mercies in this direction if they have never done 

 so before. Now, it is both seemly and proper to begin 

 with our own land, this wonderful little group of islands 

 set in a silver sea, which, from the circumstance of its 

 geographical position and the constant ministrations 

 of the ocean, has had so mighty an influence upon the 

 well-being of the whole world. A word of deprecatory 

 comment is here necessary. In dealing with the 

 currents and the winds of the ocean, some little 

 reference to their influence upon the health and wealth 

 of nations has been impossible to avoid, and conse- 

 quently they may appear to give ground for a charge 

 of repetition. If so, I would ask you to remember, 

 first, that in order to drive the subject-matter of a 

 certain great theme into most people's heads it is 

 absolutely necessary to repeat, and secondly, that in 

 dealing with so inextricably interwoven a subject as 

 the ocean in all its bearings upon the life of the dry 

 land, some little repetition is entirely unavoidable, in 

 proof of which I would quote the works of all the 

 great oceanographers, such as Reclus, Maury, Murray, 

 and others perhaps less renowned but quite as pains- 

 taking and accurate, with none of whom do I even 

 pretend to compete. In connection with this same 

 question of repetition, let me relate an illuminating 

 experience of my own. I was staying with some clear 



