20 THE OCEAN. 



the sea than in a river. Now, superior buoyancy 

 seems an important advantage in a fluid which bears 

 on its bosom the commerce of the world. It is 

 highly probable, then, that our gracious God had 

 the convenience and benefit of man in view when 

 he ordained the sea to be salt. The Ocean contains 

 three parts in every hundred of saline matter, chiefly 

 muriate of soda, or the common salt of the table, 

 which is a chemical compound of muriatic acid and 

 soda. The proportion is rather large in the vicinity 

 of the equator. If we considered only the immense 

 amount of evaporation which is daily going on from 

 the sea, we might suppose that, like a vessel of the 

 fluid exposed to the sun, it would diminish in 

 volume and increase in saltness, until at length 

 nothing would be left but a dry crust of salt upon 

 the bottom; on the other hand, looking alone at 

 the many millions of tons of fresh water which 

 are every moment poured into its bosom from the 

 rivers of the earth, we might apprehend a speedy 

 overflow, and a second destruction by a flood. But 

 these two are exactly balanced ; the water taken up 

 by evaporation is with scrupulous exactness restored 

 again, either directly, in rain which falls into the sea, 

 or circuitously, in the rain and snow, which falling 

 on the land, feed the mountains, streams and rivers, 

 and hurry back to their source. This interesting 

 circulation had been long ago observed by the wisest 

 of men: "All the rivers run into the sea; yet the 

 sea is not full; unto the place from whence the 

 rivers come, thither they return again."* And a 



* Eccles. i. 7. 



