IKTKODUCTION. 5 



steam-ship, ruslimg to her destination without asking 

 aid from wind or tide ! 



The proportion which the sea bears to the land 

 in extent of surface has been ascertained with to- 

 lerable accuracy, by carefully cutting out the one 

 from the other, as represented on the gores of a 

 large terrestrial globe, and weighing the two por- 

 tions of paper separately in a very delicate balance. 

 The ratio of the water to the land is found to be 

 about 2f to 1 : the surface of the former being 

 about one hundred and forty-four millions of square 

 miles, and that of the latter about fifty- two mil- 

 lions. Vast, however, as is the sea, and mighty in its 

 rage, it is restrained by the hand of Him that made 

 it. Water was once the instrument of vengeance 

 upon a guilty world, but He hath made a cove- 

 nant with man, that never again shall the waters 

 become a flood to destroy the earth. He " shut up 

 the sea with doors, when it brake forth as if it had 

 issued out of the womb ; when he made the cloud 

 the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swad- 

 dling-band for it ; and brake up for it his decreed 

 place, and set bars and doors, and said, Hitherto 

 shalt thou come, but no further, and here shall thy 

 proud waves be stayed!"* Slight changes are, it is 

 true, going on in the course of ages, in the relative 

 positions of the land and sea, but these are minute 

 in their extent and slow in their operation. By 

 the sand and mud, which are continually brought 

 down by the rivers and deposited in the sea, banks 

 and points of land are formed and perpetually in- 



* Job xxxviiL 8 — 11. 



