414 THE CHEMISTRY OF CREATION. 



One remarkable feature of these investiga- 

 tions into the chemistry of the sea is too im- 

 portant to be passed by ; namely, the uniformity 

 of chemical composition of sea- water, notwith- 

 standing the circumstance of its varying saline 

 quantities. This apparent paradox may be 

 explained in the following manner : if a solu- 

 tion containing certain quantities of salts, six 

 in number, the relative proportion of each of 

 which is known, be dropped into, 1st, a pint 

 of water ; 2nd, a quart ; and 3rd, a gallon, 

 and these waters are analyzed, we shall 

 have the following results : In the first we 

 should find a considerable quantity of saline 

 matter, in the next less, and in the third still 

 less; but the proportion of the salts in this 

 saline matter would not vary in the least, just 

 for the same reason that a drop of this saline 

 solution has exactly the same chemical compo- 

 sition as the whole quantity. So in the great 

 ocean : in parts it has more, in parts less, saline 

 contents ; but their number and proportion are 

 pretty generally the same in all parts. If the 

 saline matter were of a blue colour, we should 

 find the sea deep blue at the tropics, paler 

 toward the poles, and along all our coasts a 

 pale blue hue would extend, reaching deeper 



fresh-water above, explains the discordant mmlta obtained 

 by different chemists in examining the waters of the Dead 

 Sea. Vide Athenaum, Jan. 12, 1850. 



