THE PRIMEVAL SEA. I I 



still we must remember that all parts of its waters 

 are more or less intimately connected with each other, 

 and therefore as a matter of scientific fact it must be 

 regarded as but a single sea, which encircles the earth 

 in one continuous liquid expanse, bathing with its waves 

 the coast of every country, from the torrid regions of 

 the equatorial zone, to the icy shores of the two op- 

 posite poles.* 



We have however good reasons to know that the 

 present limits of this ocean have undergone many and 

 great changes in the remote ages of the primeval 

 world; this, geologists tell us, is conclusively proved 

 by the existence of marine shells and fossil sea fish, 

 in the rocks, clays, etc., found high above the present 

 sea-level. This would be too large and intricate a 

 question to enter upon here (moreover we have ventured 

 to briefly touch this subject elsewhere in these pages). 

 It may however be stated that though land has been 

 upheaved by repeated convulsions, during the course 

 of ages, from the beds of the shallower seas, in some 

 places ; and though land has sunk beneath the waves 

 in others ; still it is now generally accepted, as a mat- 

 ter of scientific truth, that water has always during 

 the vast period since life first existed upon our earth, 

 filled what is technically known as the " Abyssal 

 Region" of the ocean that is to say the great deeps 

 during an immense period of geological time, f We 

 therefore have before us this undoubted fact, that 

 alone almost among every other feature upon the 



* La Terre et les Mers, par Louis Figuier. 



j See " General Conclusions as to Scientific Results obtained by the 

 Challenger Expedition " Vol. i., p. 49 of the Introduction to the Scien- 

 tific Reports, prepared under the superintendence of Sir C. Wyviile 

 Thomson, F.R.S. 



