CHAPTER II. 



SALT WATER 



" The new sight, the new wondrous sight, 

 The waters around me turbulent." 



E. B. Browning. 

 " Water, water, everywhere. 



And not a drop to drink."— S. T. Coleridge. 



'n^HE annual stampede of Britons to the coast 

 •^ says much for our National belief in Sea- 

 breezes. In other countries also people go to 

 the sea for change ; but perhaps nowhere does 

 the rush excel that on our Island. This re- 

 vivifying gift, though pardy due to the wide 

 and free expanse through which the breezes 

 have travelled, is largely owing to the briny 

 ocean with which they have been in contact. 



Sea-water differs from rain-water, well-water, 

 river-water. True, it is made up of all these, 

 since sooner or later and in one mode or another 

 all water on Earth finds its way to the Ocean. 

 Water may travel openly by river-routes ; it may 

 creep silendy by dark and devious underground 



