SEA. 



ncknowledged by the greateft part of the maritime nations 

 of Europe ; and the repubhc of the United Provinces ac- 

 knowledged it, in the fame manner, by the treaty of Breda, in 

 the year 1667, at lead fo far as related to the honours of the 

 flag. But folidly to eftablifh a right of fuch extent, it is 

 ncceflary to fhew very clearly the exprefs, or tacit, confent 

 of all the powers concerned. The French have never agreed 

 to this prctenfion of England, and in the fame treaty of 

 Breda jull mentioned, Louis XIV. would not even fuffer 

 the Channel to be called the Enghfh Channel, or the Bri- 

 ti(h fea. 



The banks of the fea belong inconteftibly to the nation 

 that pofleiTes the country of which it is a part. The ports 

 and harbours are manifcltly a dependance, and even a part 

 of the country, and confequcntly are the property of the 

 nation. The fame obfervation is applicable to the bays and 

 itraits. With regard to llraits in particular, that ferve for 

 a communication between two feas, the navigation of which 

 is common to all, or to many nations, he who poflefles the 

 ilrait cannot refufe others a paffage through it, provided that 

 paflage be innocent, and attended with no danger to the 

 itate. Nothing but the care of his own fafety can authorize 

 the mafter of the ftrait to make ufe of certain precautions, 

 and to require the formahties commonly eitablifhed by the 

 cultom of nations. He has a right to levy fmall duties on 

 the veffels that pafs, on account of the inconvenience they 

 give him, by obliging him to be on his guard ; by the fe- 

 curity he affords them in protefting them from their ene- 

 mies, and keeping of pirates at a dillance ; and the expence 

 he incurs by maintaining light-licufcs, fea-marks, and other 

 things necellary to the fafety of the mariners. As to the right 

 of wrecks, fee Wreck. 



If the fea is entirely cnclofed by the land of a nation, 

 with only a communication witii the ocean by a channel, of 

 which that nation may take poffcffion, it appears that fuch 

 a fea is no lefs capable of being occupied and becoming 

 property than the land ; and it ought to follow the fate of 

 the country that furrounds it. The Mediterranean was for- 

 merly included within the lauds of the Romans; and tliefe 

 people, by rendering themfilvcs mafters of the ilrait that 

 joins it to the ocean, niiglit fubjeft it to their empire, and 

 add it to their domain. They did not by tliefe means injure 

 the rights of other nations ; a particular fea being manifeilly 

 defigned by nature for the ufe of the countries and the peo- 

 ple who furround it. Befides, in defending the entrance of 

 the Mediterranean from all fufpefted veuels, the Romans 

 fccured at once the immenl'e extent of their coaft ; and this 

 rcafon was fufiicient to authorife their polleflion of it. And 

 as it has an abfolute communication with none but their 

 Hate, they were at liberty to permit or prohibit the entrance 

 mto it, in the fame manner as into any of their towns and 

 provinces. 



When a nation takes pofleflion of certain parts of the fea, 

 It enjoys the empire, as well as the domain. Thofe parts of 

 the lea are withui the jurildiftlon of the territory of the na- 

 tion ; the fovereign commands there, he makes laws, and 

 may p\mi(h thofe who violate them ; in a word, he has the 

 iame rights there as at land, and in general all thofe given 

 him by the law of the Hate. 



It ought to be obfervcd, however, that a nation may 

 polfefs as property the domain of a ftate at land or fea with- 

 out having the fovereignty ; it may liappcn alfo that it may 

 have the empire of a place where the property of the domain 

 with refpett to ufe belongs to fomc other nation. The 

 Englifli have never pretended to have a property in all the 

 leas over which they have claimed the empire. Vattcl's 

 Law of Nations, b. i. ch. 23. 



The Xtrmfea is varioufly applied by failors, to a finglc 

 wave, to the agitation produced by a multitude of waves 

 in a tempell, or to their particular prntrcfs or direftion. 

 Thus they fay, a heavy fea broke over our quarter ; or, we 

 Shipped a heavy fea ; there is a great fea in the offing ; the 

 fea lets to the fouthward. Hence a Ihip is faid to head the 

 fea, when her courfe is oppufed to the letting or direftion 

 of the furges. A long fea implies an uniform and ileady 

 motion of long and extenfive waves ; on the contrary, zjhort 

 fea is when they run irregularly, broken and interrupted, 

 fo as frequently to burft over a vedel's fide or quarter. 



Sea, General Motion of the. Mr. Daflie of Paris, in a 

 work publifhed about a century ago, has been at great pains 

 to prove that the fea has a general motion, independent of 

 winds and tides, and of more confequence in navigation than 

 is ufually fuppofed. He affirms that this motion is from 

 eail to we.l, inclining toward the north, when the fun has 

 paffed the equinoftial northward, and that during the time 

 the fun is in the northern figns ; but the contrary way, after 

 the fun has pafled the faid equinoftial fouthward ; adding, 

 that when this general motion is changed, the diurnal flux is 

 changed alfo ; whence it happens, that in fereral places the 

 tide comes in during one part of the year, and goes out dur- 

 ing the other, as on the coails of Norway, in the Indies, at 

 Goa, Cochinchina, &c. where, while the fun is ia the fum- 

 mer figns, the fea runs to the fliore ; when in the winter 

 figns, from it. On the moll fouthern coafts of Tonquin 

 and China, for the fix fummer months, the diurnal courfe 

 runs from the north with the ocean ; but the fun having re- 

 pafTed the line toward the fouth, the courfe declines alfo 

 fouthward. Phil. Tranf. N° 135. 



Sea, Bafon of the. Fundus maris, a term ufed by geo- 

 graphers, and other writers, to exprefs the bottom of tiie 

 ica in general. 



Mr. Boyle has publifhed a treatife on this fubjcft, in 

 which he has given an account of its irregulanties and va- 

 rious depths, founded on the obfervations communicated to 

 him by mariners. 



The ingenious count Marfigli has, fince his time, given 

 us a much fuller account of this part of tlie globe, mollly 

 from his own experiments in many places, particularly along 

 tlie coads of Provence and La[)gucdoc. The entire bafon 

 of the fea is of fuch iinnienfe extent, and covered in many 

 places with fuch an unfathomable depth of water, that it \» 

 not to be cxpeded that it can be traced in every part ; but 

 as the whole may be gueffcd at, from fome part of it, and 

 as its general figure is of no confequence in a ftarch of this 

 kind, the obfervations of this curious author arc of great 

 value, in forming a judgment of the whole. 



The materials whicli compofe the bottom of the fea, 

 may very rationally be fuppofed, in fomc degree, to in- 

 fluence the tafle of its waters ; and Marfigli has made many 

 experiments to prove, that folUlc coal, and other bituminous 

 fubilanccs which are found in plenty at the bottom of the 

 fea, may communicate in great part its bittcrnefs to it. See 

 Saltness. 



We are not, however, to judge haflily, that there arc 

 not fo many beds of thefe at the bottom of the lea, at 

 would be necellary for fuch a purpofe, or to judge too 

 hallily againfl tlie exiftence of any other fubltanccs there, 

 becaufe we do not find proofs of tlicm by the plummet, 

 which in founding brings up otlier fubilanccs, and not thcfc; 

 for the true bottom of the lea is very often covered and ob- 

 fcured from us by another accidental bottom, formed of va- 

 rious fubllances mingled together, and often covering it to a 

 confiderable depth. 



The entire gulf of Lyons, fituatcd between Cape Quie/. 



in 



