THE EARTH. 99 



which the sea, continuing for some time without motion, began 10 as 

 sume a very formidable appearance. " Were it not/' sa} s he, " for 

 the moving of the sea, by the force of winds, tides, and currents, 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 witnesses 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 En- 

 glish Channel, for some time barrelled up ; and, in the space of a few 

 weeks, it began to acquire a fetid smell : he was also assured by one 

 of his acquaintance, who was becalmed for twelve or fourteen days in 

 the Indian Sea, that the water, for want of motion, began to stink ; 

 and that had it continued much longer, the stench would probably have 

 poisoned him. It is the motion, therefore, and not the saltness of the 

 sea, that preserves it in its present state of salubrity ; and this, very 

 probably, by dashing and breaking in pieces the rudiments, if I may 

 so call them, of the various animals that would otherwise breed there, 

 and putrefy. 



There are some advantages, however, which are derived from the 

 saltness of the ,sea. Its waters being evaporated, furnish that salt 

 which is used for domestic purposes ; and although in some places it 

 is made from springs, and in others dug out of mines, yet the greatest 

 quantity is made only from the sea. That which is called bay-salt^ 

 (from its coming to us by the bay of Biscay) is a stronger kind, made 

 by evaporation in the sun ; that called common-salt, is evaporated in 

 pans over the fire, and is of a much inferio" quality to the former. 



Another benefit arising from the quantity of salt dissolved in the 

 sea, is, that it thus becomes heavier, and, consequently, more buoyant. 

 Mr. Boyle, who examined the difference between sea-water and fresh, 

 ftmnd that the former appeared to be about a forty-fifth part heavier 

 than the latter. Those, also, who have had opportunities of bathing 

 in the sea, pretend to have experienced a much greater ease in swim- 

 ming there than in fresh water. However, as we see they have only 

 a forty-fifth part more of their weight sustained by it, I am apt to 

 doubt whether so minute a difference can be practically perceivable. 

 Be this as it may, as sea-water alters in its weight from fresh, so it is 

 found also to differ from itself in different parts of the ocean. In 



* Boyle, vol. iii. p. 222 



