OCEANOGRAPHY. 425 



the skate lives in mud, the sole in sand, and the gurnet among the 

 rocks; zoology seeks to learn how temperature and salinity are distrib- 

 uted in the water; the telegraph industry needs very precise topo- 

 graphic charts of the bottoms where it proposes to lay its cables. 

 Discoveries multiply and every science develops with each generation 

 of men. 



As soon as a science is almost complete another replaces it, or per- 

 haps two or three are founded together, for we see that natural mani- 

 festations, believed to be of a different order, are dependent in reality 

 on the same law. Evolution is going on. Mineralogy is only a chap- 

 ter of physics and chemistry; chemistry grew out of physics; physics 

 grew out of mathematics; natural history is differentiating into groups 

 and sciences; paleontology becomes paleozoology, a chapter of zoology, 

 and paleobotany a section of botany; stratigraphic geology is paleo- 

 ceanography and paleogeography ; light is electricity; rhythmic vibra- 

 tion, measurable and measured, the wave — of sound, of light, of heat, 

 of chemical action, of electricity — rules throughout the universe; bar- 

 riers fall, matter follows the laws of the mind, everything advances 

 toward scientific unity, as in the social domain everything moves 

 toward unity of condition — tbat which assures to all, in the name of 

 their common right to life, the maximum of happiness compatible with 

 the human condition. There is slowly evolving a glorious moral and 

 intellectual unity of truth, of science, of force, and of peace. 



Though every nation aspires to this final end, each will reach it by 

 different ways. While we hope for the day when all will possess the 

 same intelligence because all will possess the same needs and the same 

 ideal, this day has not yet, arrived. We see this in every event, no 

 matter what it may be, literary, artistic, or scientific; we recognize it 

 in the way in which oceanography has developed. The Englishman 

 carries into his researches qualities of precision and boldness aroused 

 by the thought of the practical utilization which he knows will result 

 from his discoveries. The North German carries a temperament fond 

 of work, but opinionated, slow, and diffuse; the Frenchman his ready- 

 witted character, a discoverer, original but not persevering, submissive 

 to routine, which he never ceases to execrate. The younger nations 

 are profiting by the experience of their elders and inherit the improve- 

 ments made in older times; they are endowed from birth with wealth 

 of incalculable value inherited from former generations. They enter 

 into action with the ardor, the boldness, and power of youth, and conse- 

 quently with its success. They take the first rank, or will do so. They 

 traverse in a few years all the phases which others took many centuries 

 to pass through. In oceanography they undertake voyages of discovery, 

 make geography, pure science, generalize, find practical applications. 

 This is what is shown in the history of the development of the studies 

 relating to the sea in the United States and Russia. 



