20 OPERATIONS OF WATEfc. 



may be termed the impurities of the land are con- 

 veyed, it is, as has been shown, the great laboratory 

 of Nature, where these are reconverted, and the 

 general balance restored. But we cannot speak of 

 these things without making passing reference to 

 the operations of water, as that wonder-working 

 agent of which the ocean constitutes but a 

 part. 



Nothing in this world is ever lost or annihilated. 

 As the ocean receives all the water that flows from 

 the land, so it returns that water, fresh and pure, 

 in the shape of vapour, to the skies; where, in the 

 form of clouds, it is conveyed to those parts of the 

 earth where its presence is most needed, and pre- 

 cipitated in the form of rain and dew, fertilizing 

 the soil, replenishing rivers and lakes, penetrating 

 the earth's deep caverns; whence it bubbles up in 

 the shape of springs, and, after having gladdened 

 the heart of man by driving his mills and causing 

 his food to grow, it finds its way again into the 

 sea : and thus the good work goes on with ceaseless 

 regularity. 



Water beats upon the rocks of the sea-shore 

 until it pounds them into sand, or rolls them into 

 pebbles and boulders. It also sweeps the rich soil 

 from the mountains into the valleys. In the form 

 of snow it clothes the surface of the temperate and 

 frigid zones with a warm mantle, which preserves 

 vegetable life from the killing frosts of winter. 

 In the form of ice it splits asunder the .granite 



