I 
THE SALTS OF THE SEA. I55 
minerals which yield one kind of salts or soluble matter, another 
river runs through a limestone or volcanic region of country, and 
brings down in solution solid matter — it may be common salt, 
sulphate or carbonate of lime, magnesia, soda, potash, or iron — ■ 
either or all may be in its waters. Still, the constituents of sea 
water from the Mediterranean and of sea water from the Red Sea 
are quite the same. But the waters of the Dead Sea have no con- 
nection with those of the ocean ; they are cut off from its channels 
of circulation, and are therefore quite diiFerent, as to their com- 
ponents, from any arm, frith, or gulf of the broad ocean. Its in- 
habitants are also different from those of the high seas. 
297. " The solid constituents of sea water amount to about 3^ 
per cent, of its weight, or nearly half an ounce to^the pound. Its 
saltness may be considered as a necessary result of the present 
order of things. Rivers which are constantly flowing into the 
ocean contain salts, varying from ten to fifty, and even one hund- 
red grains per gallon. They are chiefly common salt, sulphate 
and carbonate of lime, magnesia, soda, potash, and iron; and these 
are found to constitute the distinguishing characteristics of sea 
water. The water which evaporates from the sea is nearly pure, 
containing but very minute traces of salts. Falling as rain upon 
the land, it washes the soil, percolates through the rocky layers, • 
and becomes charged with saline substances, which are borne sea- 
ward by the returning currents. The ocean, therefore, is the 
great depository of every thing that water can dissolve and carry 
down from the surface of the continents; and, as there is no chan- 
nel for their escape, they of course consequently accumulate."* 
298. "The case of the sea," says Fowner, "is but a magnified 
representation of what occurs in every lake into which rivers flow, 
but from which there is no outlet except by evaporation. Such 
a lake is invariably a salt lake. It is impossible that it can be 
otherwise ; and it is curious to observe that this condition disap- 
pears when an artificial outlet is produced for the waters." 
299. How, therefore, shall we account for this sameness of 
compound, this structure of coral 293), this stability as to ani- 
mal life in the sea, but upon the supposition of a general system 
of circulation in the ocean, by which, in process of time, water 
from one part is conveyed to another part the most remote, and 
* Yeomans's Chemistry. 
