GERMAN OCEAN, OH NORTH SEA. 33S 



What has become of the body of water displa- 

 ced by this wasting process ? Without attempt- 

 ing to go into all the minutiae of this part of the 

 subject, I shall here briefly observe* that there 

 seems to exist (if I may be allowed so to express 

 myself) a kind of compensating arrangement be- 

 tween the solid or earthy particles of the globe in 

 the one case, and the waters of the ocean in the 

 other. Thus by the process of evaporation, and the 

 universal application of water, which enters so large- 

 ly, in its simple or chemical state, into the whole 

 animate and inanimate creation, the surface of the 

 ocean may be kept nearly at a uniform level. Phe- 

 nomena of this description are, no doubt, difficult 

 in their solution upon the great scale, being met 

 by the process of decomposition, which resolves 

 bodies into their constituent parts, and also by our 

 theory of the atmosphere, by which its limits 

 and operations are determined. But were we to 

 abstract our attention from the more general view 

 of the subject, and confine our inquiries to the 

 German Ocean, the Baltic, the Mediterranean, the 

 Red Sea, or to any other inland and circumscribed 

 parts of the ocean, this difficulty seems to be les- 

 sened. Indeed, the probability is, and it is a pretty 

 generally received opinion, that a greater quantity 

 of water is actually admitted at the Straits of Gib- 

 raltar and of Babelmandel, than flows out of the 

 Mediterranean and Red Seas. We consider water, 

 therefore, as the great pabulum of nature, which, 



