2 THE OCEAN RIVER 



laries of the salt circulation, entering and leaving the main 

 circuit with varying pulse. 



The Ocean River brings warmth and energy to northern 

 Europe, which otherwise would remain a subarctic wasteland. 

 As the Mediterranean waters nourished and promoted the 



The world, as known in the time of Homer — 1000 B.C. 



spread of classic civilization, so our North Atlantic modern 

 world is in great measure a fruit of this watery tree of life, a 

 kind of Igdrasil, whose roots are in the Caribbean and whose 

 branches spread from the Grand Banks to the Baltic. So we can 

 say that Europeans, at home or transplanted across the River 

 to the American continent, are all one people of a river system 

 with its interacting commerce and traffic, and cultural unity. 

 There is nothing stationary or changeless about this. At one 

 time in geological history things were different, and so again 

 at some unscheduled moment the bounty of this life-giving 

 stream can well be removed from us, its pensioners. It is worth 



