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CHAPTER IV. 

 The Magnitude of the Ocean. 



THERE are several arbitrary quantities which 

 contribute to determine the state of things at 

 the earth's surface besides those already men- 

 tioned. Some of these we shall briefly refer to, 

 without pursuing the subject into detail. We 

 wish not only to show that the properties and 

 processes of vegetable and animal life must be 

 adjusted to each of these quantities in particular, 

 but also to point out how numerous and com- 

 plicated the conditions of the existence of or- 

 ganized beings are ; and we shall thus be led to 

 think less inadequately of the intelligence which 

 has embraced at once, and combined without 

 confusion, all these conditions. We appear thus 

 to be conducted to the conviction not only of 

 design and intention, but of supreme knowledge 

 and wisdom. 



One of the quantities which enters into the 

 constitution of the terrestrial system of things is 

 the bulk of the waters of the ocean. The mean 

 depth of the sea, according to the calculations of 

 Laplace, is four or five miles. On this supposi- 

 tion, the addition to the sea of one-fourth of the 

 existing waters would drown the whole of the 



