THE SOURCES OF THE SEA. 5 



merely transformed and reorganized into a new shape : 

 one of the most simple and common examples of 

 such a change being shown in the formation of water 

 by combustion, as above indicated ; whereas the candle, 

 though an identical, is of course a far less obvious 

 illustration, because in this case practically nothing 

 exists, in visible form, to tell us of the change that 

 has taken place ; though in fact every atom that once was 

 candle still exists in a new and different condition. 



We trust that we shall be pardoned for embarking 

 in these technicalities, which at first sight may 

 perhaps appear to be far removed from anything con- 

 nected with our subject, the ocean; but in reality the 

 foregoing details involve questions of supreme and 

 immeasurable importance to every living thing existing 

 upon earth. It is our desire therefore, for the moment, 

 to present the existence of the terrestrial ocean, as 

 entirely subsidiary to that far greater though invisible 

 atmospheric ocean, by which the earth is enveloped. 



From whence does the water in the sea proceed? 

 It is from the atmosphere. It may be rejoined that 

 the vapour in the atmosphere was itself drawn from 

 the ocean, from which continuous streams of vapour 

 are always ascending. 



This is indisputable, and furnishes one of the most 

 beautiful instances of the perpetual, self-regulating 

 power by which the operations of Nature are carried 

 on, uninterruptedly, throughout the ages. As a 

 weaver's shuttle flies to and fro across the loom, so 

 this great process of conversion of water into vapour, 

 and of vapour back again into water, goes on for 

 ever. But the recognition of this truth does not ex- 

 plain how far these processes balance each other; nor does 



