70 



A HISTORY OF 



is so exceedingly salt, that its waters seem 

 scarcely capable of dissolving any more. 

 The lakes of Mexico, and of Titicaca, in 

 Peru, though of no great extent, are, ne- 

 vertheless, salt; and botli for the same 

 reason. 



Those who are willing to turn all things to 

 the best, have not failed to consider this salt- 

 ness of the sea as a peculiar blessing from 

 Providence, in order to keep so great an ele- 

 ment sweet and wholesome. What founda- 

 tion there may be in the remark, I will not 

 pretend to determine ; but we shall shortly 

 find a much better cause for its being kept 

 sweet, namely, its motion. 



On the other hand, there have been many 

 who have considered the subject in a differ- 

 ent light, and have tried every endeavour to 

 make salt-water fresh, so as to supply the 

 wants of mariners in long voyages, or when 

 exhausted of their ordinary stores. At first 

 it was supposed simple distillation would do; 

 but it was soon found that the bitter part of 

 the water still kept mixed. It was then tried 

 by uniting salt of tartar with sea-water, and 

 distilling both; but here the expense was 

 greater than the advantage. Calcined bones 

 were next thought of; but a hogshead of cal- 

 cined bones, carried to sea, would take up 

 as much room as a hogshead of water, and 

 was more hard to be obtained. In this state, 

 therefore, have the attempts to sweeten sea- 

 water rested ; the chymist satisfied with the 

 reality of his invention ; and the mariner con- 

 vinced of its being useless. I cannot, there- 

 fore, avoid mentioning a kind of succeda- 

 neum which has been lately conceived to an- 

 swer the purposes of fresh water, when ma- 

 riners are quite exhausted. It is well known, 

 the persons who go into a warm bath, come 

 out several ounces heavier than they went 

 in; their bodies having imbibed a corres- 

 pondent quantity of water. This more par- 

 ticularly happens, if they have been previous- 

 ly debarred from drinking, or go in with a 

 violent thirst; which they quickly find 

 quenched, and their spirits restored. It was 

 supposed, that in case of a total failure of 

 fresh-water at sea, a warm bath might be 

 made of sea-water, for the use of mariners ; 

 and that their pores would thus imbibe the 

 fluid, without any of its salts, which would be 



I seen to crystallize on the surface of their bo- 

 I dies. In this manner, it is supposed, a suffi- 

 cient quantity of moisture may be procured 

 to sustain life, till time or accident furnish 

 a more copious supply. 



But, however this be, the saltness of the 

 sea can by no means be considered as a prin- 

 cipal cause in preserving its waters from pu- 

 trefaction. The ocean has its currents, like 

 rivers, which circulate its contents round the 

 globe ; and these may be said to be the great 

 agents that keep it sweet and wholesome. 

 Its saltness alone would, by no means, answer 

 this purpose : and some have even imagined 

 that the various substances with which it is 

 mixed, rather tend to promote putrescence 

 than impede it. Sir Robert Hawkins, one of 

 our most enlightened navigators, gives the 

 following account of a calm, in which the sea 

 continuing for some time without motion, be- 

 gan to assume a very formidable appearance. 

 " Were it not," says he, " for the moving of 

 the sea, by the force of winds, tides, and cur- 

 rents, it would corrupt all the world. The 

 experiment of this I saw in the year 1590, 

 lying with a fleet about the islands of Azores, 

 almost six months; the greatest part of which 

 time we were becalmed. Upon which all the 

 sea became so replenished with several sorts 

 of jellies, and forms of serpents, adders, and 

 snakes, as seemed wonderful : some green, 

 some black, some yellow, some white, some 

 of divers colours, and many of them had life ; 

 and some there were a yard and a half, and 

 two yards long ; which had I not seen, I could 

 hardly have believed. And hereof are wit- 

 nesses all the company of the ships which 

 were then present : so that hardly a man 

 could draw a bucket of water clear of some 

 corruption. In which voyage, towards the 

 end thereof, many of every ship fell sick, and 

 began to die apace. But the speedy passage 

 into our country was a remedy to the crazed, 

 and a preservative for those that were not 

 touched." 



This shows, abundantly, how little the sea's 

 saltness was capable of preserving it from 

 putrefaction : but, to put the matter beyond 

 all doubt, Mr. Boyle kept a quantity of sea- 

 water, taken up in the English Channel, for 

 some time barrelled up ; and, in the space 

 of a few weeks, it began to acquire a fetid 



