THE OCEAN 



165 



it has grown colder and more saline, and has 

 changed its reaction from faintly acid to 

 faintly alkaline. But a million years are little 

 in such great slow processes, and no living 

 thing has ever experienced appreciable change 

 in any one of them. 



Modern research in oceanography has de- 

 tected surprisingly little variation in the tem- 

 perature of the ocean. 1 The temperature of 

 surface water depends upon the climatic 

 character of the locality, but it is subject to 

 far less variation than the temperature of the 

 atmosphere above it, and is higher than the 

 latter. The accompanying tables 2 indicate 

 the nature of some of the variations in the 

 temperature of sea water. 



Annual Ranges op Temperatures of Ocean Water 

 and of the alr over land 



1 Nearly all the facts contained in the present chapter have 

 been drawn from the following works: S. Giinther, "Hand- 

 buch der Geophysik " ; Arrhenius, "Kosmische Physik " ; and 

 Hann's "Climatology," translated by Ward. 



2 See Hann's "Climatology," translated by Ward, p. 

 135. 



