CHAPTER LXXIII 



THE SEA 



all those beautiful shells you have in the 

 drawer come from the sea?" asked Emile. 



' ' They come from the sea. ' 9 



"Is the sea very large ?" 



' ' So large that in certain parts it takes ships whole 

 months to go from shore to shore. They are fast 

 vessels, too, especially the steamships. They go al- 

 most as fast as a locomotive. " 



"And what is to be seen at sea!" 



"Overhead, the sky as here; all around, a large, 

 blue, circular expanse, and beyond that nothing. 

 One travels leagues and leagues, and yet is always 

 in the middle of that blue circle of waters, as if one 

 had not advanced. The rounded form of the earth, 

 and consequently of the seas covering the greater 

 part of it, is the cause of this appearance. The eye 

 can take in only a small extent of the sea, an extent 

 bounded by a circular line on which the dome of the 

 sky appears to rest ; and as the circle of the waters 

 is ever being renewed while keeping the same ap- 

 pearance as one advances, it seems as if one re- 

 mained stationary in the center of the circle where 

 the blue of the sky merges into the blue of the sea. 

 However, by dint of this continued advance one 

 finally perceives a little gray smoke on the line that 



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