THE SEA 361 



tlirir present extent, would have a uniform layer of 

 water of from 6000 to 7m HI meters in depth." 



"I get rather bewildered with all these kilome- 

 ters, " complained Emile. " Never mind; I begin to 

 understand that there is a great deal of water in 

 the sea." 



"Much more than you could ever imagine. You 

 know the Rhone, the largest river in France; you 

 have seen it at flood, when its muddy waters form a 

 sheet from one bank to the other as far as the eye 

 can reach. It is estimated that in this condition it 

 pours into the sea about five million liters of water 

 a second. Well, if it always preserved that majes- 

 tic fulness, this large river could not, in twenty 

 years, fill the thousandth part of the ocean basin. 

 Does that make you understand any better how im- 

 mense the sea is?" , 



"My poor head is dizzy at the mere thought of it. 

 What color are the waters of the sea? Are they 

 yellow and muddy like the Rhone?" 



"Never, except at the mouths of rivers. Seen in 

 a small quantity, the water looks colorless ; seen in a 

 great mass, it appears of its natural color, greenish 

 blue. The sea, then, is blue with a greenish t'm.uv, 

 darker in the open sea, clearer near the coasts. But 

 fliis coloring- changes a great deal, according to the 

 brightness of the sky. Under a bright sun the calm 

 sea is now pale blue, now dark indigo; under a 

 stormy sky it becomes bottle i^reen and almost 

 black." 



