34 



and it was found, as might have been expected, that when the 

 bottle was not broken by the pressure, it returned quite empty. 

 When the sea water is distilled the evaporated fluid is, theoretically 

 pure, and the salts, of course, remain in the vessel, but it is very 

 nasty, from the presence of some of the more volatile acids, such 

 as the hydrochloric, which pass over in the distillate It is pos- 

 sible, however, to prevent this, but the apparatus for distillation, 

 &c., is cumbrous, expensive, and difficult to manage at sea, and I 

 believe most navies have abandoned the attempt to distil sea 

 water, and content themselves with storing fresh water in iron 

 tanks, which are, of course, far better and more wholesome than 

 the wooden casks formerly in use. 



The reason why the sea is salt, is quite easy to understand, al- 

 though curiously enough, it was not appreciated, until compara- 

 tively recently. 



Only last century it was thought there existed great beds and 

 rocks of salt at the bottom of the sea. A moment's reflection will 

 show us that sea water must necessarily be salt. All seas are fed 

 by rivers, which, in their turn derive their waters from rain which 

 has evaporated from the ocean, &c. This rain, before it finds its 

 way to the river beds, necessarily percolates through the earth, 

 and dissolves out of it all soluble matters it meets with, which are 

 chiefly of a saline character, and bears them off to the sea. So 

 constantly is this going on and so large is the loss of fluid by 

 evaporation from the surface, that it is wonderful the sea is not 

 more highly charged than it is with saline matter. In the early 

 history of our earth when her surface was still glowing with intense 

 heat, the first showers which fell on the hot rocks, must, by virtue 

 of their high temperature, have dissolved far more saline material 

 than they do at present, and the primitive chasms and valleys 

 which formed the ocean beds of chaos contained a warm fluid 

 intensely salt and of a much higher specific gravity than our 

 present seas. Speaking generally, the loss by evaporation is pretty 

 evenly balanced by rain, and the influx of rivers ; where these 

 conditions do not exist, as for example, in the Mediterranean, 

 which receives but few rivers, the waters tend to get more highly 

 charged with salts and the specific gravity is increased. The 

 fishermen of Norway, perhaps the most superstitious of European 

 races, still believe the saltness of the sea to be due to the magic 

 mill which is for ever grinding salt at the bottom of the Atlantic. 

 I daresay most of you know the story, for nearly all our fairy tales 

 are founded upon the Scandinavian folk lore. Once upon a time 

 there were two brothers, one rich the other poor. On Christmas 

 morning the poor brother went to the rich one to beg a piece of 

 bacon, as he had no food. Yes, the rich brother would give it to 



