NARRATIVE OF THE CRUISE. xxxiii 



men concerning the origin of its saline impregnation." It was not until the time of Boyle 

 that the theory at present held regarding the origin of salt in the sea was propounded. 



The rage for geographical exploration which set in after the discovery of America 

 naturally brought the phenomena of the sea into greater prominence. Sir John 

 Hawkins' story, as told by Boyle, while almost poetical enough to suggest Coleridge's 

 well-known lines, 1 has yet a flavour of scientific observation about it : — 



" Were it not for the Moving of the Sea, by the Force of Winds, Tides and Currents, 

 it would corrupt all the World, The Experience of which I saw Anno 1590, lying with 

 a Fleet about the Islands of Azores, almost Six Months, the greatest Part of the time we 

 • were becalmed, with which all the Sea became so replenished with several sorts of Gellies 

 and Forms of Serpents, Adders and Snakes, as seem'd Wonderful ; some green, some 

 black, some yellow, some white, some of divers Colours, and many of them had Life, and 

 some there were a Yard and a half, and some two Yards long ; which had I not seen, I 

 could hardly have believed ; and hereof are Witnesses all the Company of the Ships, 

 which were then present, so that hardly a Man could draw a Bucket of Water clear 

 of some Corruption." 3 



The Science of the Sea may be said to date from the seventeenth century. The 

 methods used were crude, but they sometimes contained the germs of great ideas ; the 

 results arrived at were often erroneous, but they were steps in the right direction ; and 

 the researches were animated by the true scientific spirit, the spirit of observation and 

 experiment. 



In his paper, Of the Saltness of the Sea, 3 Boyle detailed a great number of 

 experiments. He personally made a series of observations on the water of the English 

 Channel, collecting it from various depths, and observing its specific gravity. The 

 samples from beneath the surface were probably procured by means of Hooke's water- 

 bottle, an extremely ingenious valved box, which is fully described and figured in one 

 of the early numbers of the Philosophical Transactions. 4 Boyle investigated the saltness of 

 the water by a number of processes : lie tried the estimation of total solids by direct 

 evaporation and ignition, but not being satisfied with the result he ultimately took 

 the density as an index of the saltness, and determined this either by means of a glass 

 hydrometer, by weighing in a phial which was afterwards weighed when full of distilled 

 water, or by weighing a piece of sulphur in distilled water and sea water consecutively. 



" As for the different degrees of the saltness of the sea," says Boyle, " I shall deliver 

 what 1 have been informed of as briefly as I can. And first, it hath been observed, bj^one 



1 " The very deep did rot : Christ ! 



That ever this should lie ! 



Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs 



Upon the slimy sea." 

 - Boyle's Works, epitomized l>y Roulton, vol. i. p. 281, London, 1G99. :; Thick, p. 274. 



4 Phil. Trans., vol. ii. p. 442. 1G67. (The figure is reproduced in the tailpiece to this Introduction.) 



