THE ATLANTIC OCEAN. 227 



point in maritime economy has been achieved. The very 

 simplicity and familiarity of the name so given is a tribute to 

 that prowess of man, which has taught him thus to mark out 

 and pursue a fixed path through the wide wilderness of 

 waters. 



Though not having exhausted the subject of the Atlantic, 

 either in its physical features or in its relations to human 

 industry and power, we stop here. The points we have 

 touched upon will show how copious and interesting a topic, 

 under both these aspects, is the ' Physical Geography of the 

 Sea ; ' and how worthy to be embodied with the other great 

 subjects of human knowledge, which at this time enlighten 

 and animate the world. Every year enlarges its domain ; 

 and we may fairly predict that the history of the Atlantic, 

 written twenty years hence, will be a record of numerous 

 physical facts, now either unknown or dimly and doubtfully 

 understood. Whatever' their particular nature, we may be 

 certain that they will tend to illustrate that mutual connec- 

 tion among different branches of knowledge, to which every 

 day is adding further testimony. 



