A BEAUTIFUL COMPENSATION. 19 



of its vapour, it first makes it impalpable, and then 

 conveys it by unknown paths to the most distant 

 parts of the Earth. The materials of which the 

 coral builds the island, and the sea-conch its shell, 

 are gathered by this restless leveller from moun- 

 tains, rocks, and valleys, in all latitudes. Some it 

 washes down from the Mountains of the Moon in 

 Africa, or out of the gold-fields of Australia, or from 

 the mines of Potosi; others from the battle-fields, of 

 Europe, or from the marble quarries of ancient 

 Greece and Rome. The materials thus collected, 

 and carried over falls and down rapids, are trans- 

 ported to the sea." 



Here, as these substances cannot be evaporated, 

 they would accumulate to such a degree as to 

 render the ocean uninhabitable by living creatures, 

 had not God provided against this by the most 

 beautiful compensation. He has filled the ocean 

 with innumerable animals and marine plants, whose 

 special duty it is to seize and make use of the sub- 

 stances thus swept from the land, and reconvert 

 them into solids. We cannot form an adequate 

 conception of the extent of the great work carried 

 on continually in this way ; but we see part of it 

 in the chalk cliffs, the marl beds of the sea shore, 

 and the coral islands of the South Seas, of which 

 last more particular notice shall be taken in a suc- 

 ceeding chapter. 



The operations of the ocean are manifold. Be- 

 sides forming a great reservoir, into which what 



