THE FUNCTION OF SALT IN SEA WATER. 331 



of the sea, is wafted soonei" or later to the land ; and there becoming 

 condensed by contact with the cold of mountain chains, by tree- 

 covered districts, and other recognized agencies, it falls in the form 

 of rain, &c.j and, finally, after fulfilling its manifold functions, it 

 becomes returned, for the greater part, by the natural drainage-chan- 

 nels of the earth — -the brooks and streams and brimming rivers — to 

 the sea from whence it came. If any prolonged cause of disturbance, 

 therefore, affected the process of evaporation as carried on betwixt 

 the air and sea, the earth throughout broad areas, if not throughout 

 its whole extent, would necessarily suflFer by the reaction — either 

 from a want of rain, or a deficiency of moisture in the atmosphere ; 

 or from unripened harvests and invmdations of the land occasioned by 

 excess of rainfall. The saline condition of the sea evidently serves 

 as the main controlling power to disturbances of this character. 



Teleology is terribly out of fashion, nowadays, in scientific thought. 

 The author should perhaps apologize, therefore, for attempting to 

 recall attention to a subject of this kind. But without being in any 

 way an opponent of " advanced views " generally, one may still hesi- 

 tate to regard the wonderful balance of natural forces, seen almost 

 everywhere in the cosmic infinity around us, as nothing more than 

 merely a fortuitous result. 



