370 THE STORY-BOOK OF SCI FACE 



can do. But it does not dare, tiny little stream, to 

 make the voyage alone and go and find the sea, the 

 immense sea, all by itself. It meets company on the 

 way, joins its thread of clear water to stronger 

 streams which become rivers by joining their forces; 

 the sea-going-river receives tributary streams, and 

 the sea, in receiving the river, drinks the tiny brook. ' ' 



"All running waters, " said Jules, "brooks, tor- 

 rents, streams, rivers, run into the sea without a 

 break, and that takes place all over the world, so 

 that every second the sea receives incalculable vol- 

 umes of water. So I come back to Emile's question : 

 How is it that, continually receiving so much water, 

 the sea does not overflow ?" 



"If, when full, a reservoir receives from a spring 

 just as much as it lets out through some opening, 

 can this reservoir overflow, even when water is al- 

 ways coming in?" 



"Certainly not: losing as much as it receives, it 

 must always keep the same level." 



"It is the same with the sea. It loses just as much 

 as it gains, and therefore its level always remains 

 the same. Brooks, torrents, streams, rivers, all run 

 into the sea; but brooks, torrents, streams, and riv- 

 ers also come from the sea. They carry back to the 

 immense reservoir what they took from it, and not 

 a drop more." 



"If the crab brook comes from the sea," inter- 

 posed Emile, "as you say, its water ought to be salt; 

 but I know very well it is not, in the least. " 



"Certainly it is not salt; but the brook does not 

 come out of the sea as the water of a ditch comes 



