INTRODUCTION XV11 



hardly realizable, importance to the population of the 

 world at large. Some space is also devoted to the 

 consideration of the temporary currents caused by 

 gales above or cosmic disturbances beneath the ocean, 

 and having extraordinary influence upon the weather 

 of the world, as well as assisting in the great and neces- 

 sarily contimious work of maintaining the circulation 

 of the vast body of water constituting at least three- 

 fourths of the surface of our planet. This immense 

 subject is so fascinating and so little understood, even 

 by those who have studied it most deeply, that I have 

 the greatest difficulty in confining myself to the pre- 

 scribed bounds of two chapters, with the result I 

 fear that my remarks will appear somewhat scrappy. 

 I hope that this will be forgiven me when the object 

 of my book is remembered. 



Then there is the great question of the ocean as a 

 food supply, the most fertile field known to mankind, 

 requiring none of his labour to till it, none of his in- 

 terference to make it produce perennially a store of 

 animal food sufficient not only to feed the population 

 of the world, but to supply the needs of its own in- 

 numerable inhabitants as well. Here we have the 

 ideal chain of interdependence, a region where, without 

 man's intervention, there is an abundance so overflow- 

 ing that the mind reels to think of it. Indeed, it is 

 beyond our calculations altogether, especially when 

 we remember how close and intense is the application 

 needed to make the earth yield her increase for the 

 food of man, and how enormous is the space of dry 

 land where nothing is or can be produced. In the 

 ocean every inch is fruitful, abounding in life, all of 

 which has its recognized position in the scheme of 



