JG8 THE OCEAN, 



saline matter, particularly of common salt, which is usually CMV 

 tracted from it. Indeed, if the sea were not impregnated with 

 these saline bodies, the pntrefaction of the immense mass of animal 

 and vegetable matter which it contains would in a short time prove 

 fatal to the whole inhabitants of the earth. 



The absolute quantity of sea water cannot be ascertained, as its 

 mean depth is unknown. Mr. De la Place has demonstrated, that 

 a depth of four leagues is necessary to reconcile the height to which 

 the tides are known to rise in the main ocean with the Newtonian 

 theory of the tides *. If we suppose this to be the mean depth, 

 the quantity of water in the ocean must be immense. Even on the 

 supposition that its mean depth is not gre ter than the fourth part 

 of a mile, its solid contents (allowing its surface to be three fourths 

 of that of the superficies of the earth) would be 32^058,939$ 

 cubic miles. 



Sea water has a very disagreeable bitter taste, at least when 

 taken from the surface or near the shore; but when brought up 

 from great depths, its taste is only saline t Hence we learn that 

 this bitterness is owing to the animal and vegetable substances with 

 which it is mixed near the surface. Its specific gravity varies from 

 1-0269 to 1*0285 J. It does not freeze till cooled down to 25*2 

 of Fahrenheit's scale. 



It has been ascertained by the experiments of different che- 

 mists ||, and especially by those of Bergman, that sea water holds 

 in solution muriate of soda, muriate of magnesia, sulphate of 

 magnesia, and sulphate of lime ; besides the animal and vegetable 

 bodies with which it is occasionally contaminated. The average 

 quantity of saline ingredients is l-28th. Bergman fouud water 

 taken up from the depth of 60 fathoms, near the Canaries, by Dr. 

 Sparrman, to contain 1.24th. Lord Mulgrave found the water 

 at the back of Yarmouth sands to contain about 1-3 2th part. 

 Bergman found water taken up from a depth of sixty fathoms to 

 contain only the following salts in the following proportions. 

 -^ i - -.__.._ - 



* Mem. Par. 1776, p. 213. 



i Bergman, i. 180. 



J BUidh. Kirwan's Geological Essays, p. 355. 



Nairnc, Phil. Trans. 17 2.6, Part First. 



| M^onnet, Lavoisier, Bauqje, <Sjc. have published analyses of sea water- 



