2] 2 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA : 



through which its passage lies. We know well its wonderful 

 power in evoking the organic life, with the germs of which 

 the atmosphere everywhere teems ; and there is even reason 

 to believe that this influence extends to different depths of the 

 sea, concurring with other causes to define those successive 

 strata of animal and vegetable life, which are so curiously 

 attested as the result of the marine dredgings and soundings 

 directed to this object.* 



We deviate thus far from our direct subject, merely to 

 point out the singular complexity of those elements and 

 relations, which make up the history of atmospheric pheno- 

 mena, whether on ocean or land. Such, and so close are 

 these relations, that scarcely a change can occur in any one 

 of them, without altering or disturbing more or less the 

 balance of all. Science is now seeking to decipher these 

 phenomena; and to obtain both more exact results, and 

 knowledge of the relative influence of the causes producing 

 them. But longer time and wider averages are required to 

 this end ; and meanwhile what becomes most needful is a 

 patient and precise observation on all parts of the globe, and 

 in all climes and seasons ; aided by such an amount of pro- 

 visional theory as may serve to the guidance of research, 

 and to bind facts together until they can be submitted to 

 the governance of general laws. 



These considerations may mitigate a criticism to which 

 Captain Maury's work is liable here, and indeed more or less 

 throughout. He theorises too largely and hazardously, and 



* In speaking of the influences of Light upon organic life, even in the depths 

 of the sea, we would advert for a moment to those singular fossil crustaceans, 

 the Trilobites. Found as far down as the Lower Silurian Rocks the earliest 

 known date of animal life, and far beyond all human measure of time the 

 eyes of these creatures are so well preserved in some specimens, as to show 

 some four hundred spherical lenses composing this organ ; indicating thereby not 

 merely similar conditions of light, but also that the waters of the sea at this 

 epoch were as transparent as in our own day. Conclusions of this kind, thus 

 obtained and applied, are strikingly characteristic of modern science. 



